Attributed to Johannes Voorhout
Dutch Republic · Dutch Golden Age, Baroque
The story
Look up in the front hall of Petronella Oortman's dolls' house and you see Aurora, goddess of the dawn, on a ceiling panel about 35 centimetres high. The Rijksmuseum lists it as attributed to Johannes Voorhout, which means the museum believes he painted it but stops short of certainty. This entry stands for that qualifier.
Two other pictures in the same house need no such caution. The Finding of Moses over the chimney in the lying-in room is signed J. v. Hout, and Christ Blessing the Children, in another room, still shows the faded remains of his signature. Voorhout, an Amsterdam painter of biblical and mythological scenes, was working in the city while Oortman furnished her house between 1686 and 1710.
