This elegant interior recalls the work of Van Mieris’s father, Frans. The bas-relief of a man embracing a naked woman and the naked statues of Venus and Hercules provide an erotic mythological subtext to a scene of contemporary seduction, where a gentleman offers a lady a glass of wine. His intentions are made clear by the large plate of oysters, a well-known aphrodisiac, which occupies a corner of the foreground. Meanwhile the lady seems to hesitate. Musical accompaniment often symbolises amorous harmony in Dutch paintings of the period, but here the lady holds rather than plays her theorbo as two figures look on intrigued by the proceedings. The composition, with its small figures arranged in a shallow monumental interior, is typical of Willem van Mieris’s work, while his fine technique aims to imitate the superior manner of his father.