The Rijksmuseum has just hung a risqué Golden Age painting, Gerard van Honthorst’s depiction of a lustful satyr and an eager nymph. Look closer, and don’t miss his swollen nipple and her excited blush. The perspective suggests that the artist may have painted it for a chimney piece, perhaps for a bedroom. Satyr and Nymph (1623) is on long-term loan from the Broere Charitable Foundation, set up by the founders of the Dordrecht-based shipping company. Taco Dibbits, the director of collections at the Amsterdam museum, says the picture’s “frivolous subject” shows a different side of the 17th century, one which until now has “not been well represented in the Rijksmuseum”. The Honthorst is in the Gallery of Honour, among rather more respectable company.
