Aurora, from the Dolls' House of Petronella Oortman

The front hall of Petronella Oortman's dolls' house has a painted ceiling of its own. Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, sits on a cloud holding a burning torch, and behind her glows the orange disc of the rising sun. Three putti, the plump child figures of Baroque painting, play around her with a ring, an arrow and loose flowers. A painted moulding of laurel in yellowish grey runs around the scene, with shells in the corners. The panel measures 35 by 24 centimetres, and the Rijksmuseum gives it, with a note of caution, to Johannes Voorhout.