A Startling Introduction, c.1632 (oil on panel)

he subject-matter of ‘A Startling Introduction’ by Pot is easy to describe, but difficult to explain. The woman points a dagger at herself and a man stands back in exaggerated horror, raising his hands and dropping his hat. Clearly he has been in the room for some time - his cloak and sword are placed on the chair seen on the opposite side. Pot has a habit of scattering objects throughout a room as if providing clues in a detective story. Here the broken rose on the ground, the girdle and wine glass on the table, and the hound importuning the lady’s lapdog denote an erotic context. The elaborate setting of a room hung with draperies and an armorial mantelpiece (with helmet in reverse) are of no assistance in interpreting the scene. Possibly there is a literary or dramatic source, but the only one so far suggested, 'The Palace of Pleasure' by Matteo Bandello (1566) seems too early in date. Other suggestions have been in the realm of historical fantasy and were no doubt encouraged by Pot’s somewhat operatic treatment of the subject. Could this perhaps be a modern-dress re-telling of the story of the suicide of Lucretia in the presence of her husband, Collatinus? In many respects the painting anticipates the historical genre scenes of J.L.E. Meissonier in nineteenth-century France.