An allegory of Taste: A man, bust-length, in a black jacket and red beret, holding a pasglas

This small tronie of a man brandishing a pasglas, may well represent an allegory of taste and might have originally belonged to a series of the Senses. This merrymaker, his expansive grin and bright face suggesting the effects of drink are already well advanced, raises his glass directly to the viewer. The relaxed tone is complimented by Staverenus's fluid handling and can be compared with the similarly expressive head studies, of slightly smaller dimensions, representing the Five Senses, sold at Neumeister Kunstauktionen, Munich, 30 November 2010, lot 33 (EUR 139,522). The tradition for capturing human emotions and facial expressions was well established in the northern Netherlands by the 1620s and 1630s; similar types appear in the low-life genre paintings of artists such as Adriaen Brouwer and Adriaen van Ostade.

Petrus Staverenus is recorded as having worked as a copper engraver and painter of portraits, still-lifes and genre subjects in The Hague between 1634 and 1654. Although he joined the guild in 1635, Staverenus did not pay the admission of 18 guilders which suggests he was not a native of the city. A notebook belonging to the artist dating from 1646 is in the Bredius Museum in The Hague, and provides further documentation of his presence in The Hague at that time.