A Nurse Showing a Mother Her Child,

1671–78

The Rotterdam painter Jacob Ochtervelt specialized in domestic genre scenes. Here, a wet nurse presents a baby to the clearly delighted mother, mistress of the house. The scene is bathed in a warm, almost sacred light. The orderliness and smooth running of the household and the education of children belonged to the woman’s domain and were her primary responsibilities. Her elite social position is alluded to not only by the presence of a servant and the mother’s fur-trimmed jacket and silk dress with gold-thread trim, but also by the marble floor, the hearth’s tall column with ionic capital, the large painting on the back wall, and the silver accessories placed on the imported carpet-covered table.