A monk seducing a nun

The present lot relates closely to a larger panel painting depicting the same subject in the Catharijneconvent Museum, Utrecht (on loan from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam). That version depicts the central figures of the monk and nun, but has an additional section on the right depicting a Pope peeping salaciously through the curtains. The scene is spot-lit by the lantern that the latter holds. Ultimately such images derive from the flurry of polemic literature and images triggered by the Lutheran transformation of the Catholic Church beginning in the 1520s and extending well into the seventeenth century. Although the Utrecht painting has been known for some time, the artist's identity remains as yet undiscovered, quite probably in accord with the anonymous hand's original intention.