König Kandaules von Lydien zeigt seine Frau dem Gyges

The story comes from Herodotus, writing more than 2,000 years ago. Candaules, king of Lydia, was so proud of his wife's beauty that he hid his favourite guardsman, Gyges, in the bedroom to watch her undress and settle the boast. She saw him. The next day she gave Gyges a choice: die for what he had seen, or kill the king and take both the throne and her. He chose the throne. Jacob Jordaens, painting in Antwerp around 1646, drops the ancient tale into a plush 17th-century bedchamber of heavy curtains and candlelight. The queen has just caught sight of the intruder, and she turns her look straight out at us, so that whoever stands before the painting is caught watching too.