Satyr at the Peasant’s House Jacob Jordaens

The painting depicts the moment when the satyr, a woodland spirit known from mythology mostly for his lustfulness, tells his host, “A fellow that blows hot and cold with the same breath cannot be friends with me!” Just before this scene, he had not only seen the peasant warm his freezing hands by blowing on them, but had also watched him cool his food in the same way. These words, warning of the dangers of false, duplicitous friendships, were placed in the satyr’s mouth by the Greek storyteller Aesop, who lived in the sixth century BC. This instructive fable provided Jordaens with the perfect setting for a genre piece, inviting the viewer to take a seat at the modestly laid table of a simple Flemish family.