Het Gehoor

A woman in a high lace ruff and elaborate bodice plays a virginal while a man behind her looks on, playing a lute. In the background, a stag—a traditional animal symbol for acute hearing—watches from behind a curtain and a tree. The scene is executed in the highly textured, curvilinear style characteristic of the Haarlem Mannerists.

This work belongs to a series on the Five Senses, a popular theme in Renaissance natural philosophy and moralizing literature. While music was often viewed in Neoplatonic circles as a means to reach divine harmony, the accompanying Latin verse warns of the sensory dangers of music, comparing its allure to the destructive song of the Sirens.