A more interesting example is The Dancing Couple 1663 by the Dutch painter Jan Steen National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC which depicts a tavern scene with much merrymaking Fig. 1. To remind the viewers of the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures the painter uses several metaphors familiar to 17th century viewers. These include broken shells on the foreground loss of innocence, bird in cage human bondage, church spires in the background eternal life, and hidden in the lower right-hand corner of the painting, a young boy blowing soap bubbles fragility of earthly life Fig. 2.