In Luxury, Beware (detail)
by STEEN, Jan, Oil on canvas
It is true that the depiction contains scores of references to the “dissolute household”, a motif that Steen embroidered on countless paintings, yet quite correctly the picture once was called a proverb painting. In this detail, the little monkey stopping the clock at the upper right recalls the moral “In dwaasheid vergeet men de tijd” (In foolishness time is forgotten).