OLIVER, Isaac
(b. before 1568, Rouen, d. 1617, London)

A Party in the Open Air. (Allegory on Conjugal Love)

1590-95
Watercolour on vellum, 11 x 17 cm
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

This miniature painting shows a scene teeming with detail in which men and women have gathered for an open-air party where the concept of love is at the heart of everything. The scene is a moralising allegory, i.e. a cautionary tale about Christian, married love versus sensuous love, which at the time was regarded as corrupting and wrong.