Woman drying her nets

Interior with a woman sitting by a fireplace. With her right arm she leans on a table, her left leg rests on a fire iron. With her left hand she holds a net between her legs. Behind her, a man with amorous intentions: 'Liefken wat mackt ghij met uwe bruijn oogen' (Dear, what are you doing with your brown eyes). She rejects him, however, because she still needs to recover from the night: 'Lief ick heb al den nacht gevist ick moet mijn netken drogen' (Dear, I have been fishing all night, I must dry my little net). In the 16th and 17th centuries, one of the meanings of 'fishing' was sexual intercourse; the net was a symbol for the vagina.