Interior with a gold weigher

PIETER VAN SLINGELANT

1640-LEIDEN-1691

Provenance
Collection J.J.A. Rodbard Apeldoorn 1957 as M. Withoos
Auction Amsterdam Sotheby 18 November 1985 as Jacob van Spreeuwen
Private collection

Arnold Boonen was a pupil of Godfried Schalcken. He painted genre pictures in his style, genre pictures in candle light. However due to much encouragement in portrait painting, he shifted almost entirely to that branch. His style was well adapted to succeed in it. An excellent colorist, a faithfull designer of his model, he was soon distinguished as one of the ablest artist of his day. He painted a number of portraits of the most distinguished people of his time, such as Peter de Grote, the Prince and Princess of Orange and the Duke of Marlborough. He created also large paintings for different company halls in Amsterdam and Dordrecht.

This painting can be compared with the Merchant in his office ( before 1729 ).
The gold weigher in 17^th century paintings can have two meanings;
On the one hand, it symbolizes the impermanence of life, because the person    who weighs will eventually be weighed at the Last Judgement
On the other hand, the weigher can symbolize earthly actions or a worldly attitude.

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