102 tectural motifs, still lifes, portraits, and genre scenes with such trompe l’oeil curtains. The cut-off upper segments of the rings from which the curtain hangs, and the absence of brackets holding the curtain rod, on the other hand, may perhaps indicate a special context in which these details were continued on a frame or wooden surrounding. This bedriegertje, or ‘little trickster’, could conceivably have been mounted in a blind window or wall niche,7 and it might have provided entertainment for guests in a similar way to the picture of a maid that Rembrandt is said to have placed in the window of his house for passers-by.8 Fig. 2 Cornelis Boel, Inconcussa fide (Oprecht), emblem from: Otto van Veen, Amorum emblemata, Antwerp 1608 [28], [motifs: posture of Cupido, foot on a mask, bow erected] Fig. 3 Cornelis Boel, Perfectus amor non est nisi ad unum (Een alleen), emblem from: Otto van Veen, Amorum emblemata, Antwerp 1608 [2], [motifs: raised left arm, bow raised] Fig. 4 Cornelis Boel, Auro conciliatur amor, emblem from: Otto van Veen, Amorum emblemata, Antwerp 1608 [65], [motifs: quiver with arrows on the ground] The question arises whether the large background picture of Cupid uncovered during the restoration, which is comparable to the Cupid pictures in Young Woman Standing at a Virginal (c. 1670–72), London, The National Gallery), Girl Interrupted at her Music (c. 1658/59, New York, The Frick Collection) and A Maid Asleep (fig. 6–9), might provide clues regarding the possible context in which the Dresden painting was displayed in Vermeer’s time. While searching for a precedent to the Cupid painting- within-a-painting, the suggestion arose that it might be based on formerly existing works by the artists Caesar Boetius van Everdingen (1616/17–1678) and Jacob van Loo (1614–1670).9 Their paintings were
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