Worship of the Golden Calf

In 1604 the painter and writer Karel van Mander saw this triptych in a house on the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam, a street named for the cattle market held there, and praised how vividly Lucas van Leyden had caught the revellers' sensual looks and the impure desires in their eyes. It was painted around 1530 and takes its story from Exodus. While Moses is up on Mount Sinai receiving the law, the Israelites below lose patience, make a golden calf and hold a feast for it. The idol itself is small and far back, in the middle distance, where tiny figures dance around it. Most of the three panels go to eating, drinking and flirting in the foreground. High in the centre, a dark storm cloud wraps the mountain. Among the couples, a woman offering fruit to a man recalls the first temptation in Eden.