Gentleman and Lady on a Garden Terrace

This stately scene is set on a mansion terrace against the background of an Italianate landscape. An elegantly dressed couple looks out at viewers, inviting them to take part in proceedings. The meticulously elaborated portrait of a betrothed or married couple contains numerous innuendos, the most obvious being the peach held out by the man and the statue of Venus in the background – both erotic allusions. In the 17th century, the peach was considered a sub-species of the apple and thus a synonym for seduction and the Fall of Mankind. Here, it is “Adam” who holds out the “apple”. The young woman’s pearl necklace represents a link with Venus. The pose of the "Venus Pudica" (Roman) covering her private parts, dates back to the "Aphrodite of Knidos", a famous cultic image in Greece. Following a ritual bath – shown on the right beyond the parapet – her virginity is restored.

Habersatter Thomas: Barend Graat, Gentleman and Lady on a Garden Terrace, in: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hrsg./Edi.): von | from 0 auf | to 100. Residenzgalerie Salzburg 1923-2023. Salzburg 2023, S./p. 144-145