Interior with Two Pairs of Lovers and a Fool

As the prominent curtains imply, this boisterous genre scene by the itinerant German artist Johann Liss likely takes place in the cosy interior of a brothel. In a gesture typical of northern European sensitivities, the crouching fool covers much of his face with his hand, yet fixes the viewer in his gaze. By enjoying the sensory delights on display—music and lovemaking— the viewer is implicated as part of the scene. Liss may have produced this print in Venice at the end of his career; the print’s lightly moralistic tone is equally at home in southern Europe.