Nella lussuria, fa' attenzione

'on the blackboard in the right foreground, Steen wrote another proverb: 'in luxury, look out'. Like many writers of his day, he warned viewers to watch out when living in riches, since fortunes can change, particularly if no one is looking [...] In the seventeenth century, however, 'luxury' emcompassed more than the illicit sexual desire as well, and drink and tobacco were thought to strenghten it. To signal this connotation, Steen placed the amorous couple at the hub of the abuse of luxury. In the Netherlands, artists had traditionally personified luxury as a woman seductively dressed in silks. Not accidentally, it is such an immodestly dressed woman who invites the viewer to look at luxury and to beware of it'.

Mariët WESTERMANN [1996] The Art of the Dutch Republic 1585-1717, London: Lawrence King Publishing, pp.14-15.