The Story
The following is a list of notable actors who have appeared in Royal Shakespeare Company productions and at Stratford.
Created in 1660 during the 1650-1700 period, this work belongs firmly within the power & politics tradition. Jan Steen worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in oil on panel, measuring width: 62.5; height: 46, the surface rewards close looking. Jan Steen builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
