Lady Seated in a Window

This woman is encompassed by motifs connoting, like her very persona, virtue. She is about to peel an apple, an activity associated with food preparation, a quintessential task of women. Note as well the book on the ledge, a tome indicating piety, and also the grapevine and birdcage hanging in the space behind her symbolizing love and fidelity.

The companion-piece of the painting (in the Mauritshuis, The Hague) represents a hunter surrounded by motifs apposite to the male realm.