# Merry Company [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BUYTEWECH, Willem Pietersz.]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 61 x 81 cm ## Commentary In the late 1610s Willem Buytewech began to paint scenes of fancily attired youth drinking, making music, and courting. In this characteristic work a brightly coloured group of four men and two women fully occupies a shallow interior, pressing on us their enjoyment of music, wine, and those notorious aphrodisiacs, oysters. But rather than communicating an obvious narrative, the figures are posed in attitudes of merriment, swagger, and romance. This company originally alluded more blatantly to illicit pleasure, as the man at left held a chamber pot, a fixture of brothel scenes. The offensive item was painted out early in the twentieth century, when the man's hand was repainted as resting on the chair. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="\#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 9 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/18\_cent/vivaldi\_rv180\_piacere.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in C major RV 180 \(Il Piacere, The Pleasure\)</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> ## Related artworks - [Banquet in the Open Air]() - [Dignified Couples Courting \(detail\)]() - [Dignified Couples Courting \(detail\)]() - [Dignified Couples Courting]() - [Merry Company \(detail\)]() - [Merry Company]() - [Merry Company]() - [Road along a Wood]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()