It is between these two extremes of generous freedom and highly wrought restraint that the pendulum of Steen’s art swings, with such wealth of variety that it is impossible to specialize further. However, a word or two must be said in conclusion about his treatment of Biblical subjects, of which _The Marriage at Cana_ and _The Expulsion of Hagar_, both in the Dresden Gallery, may be cited as typical examples.
Steen’s treatment of Biblical, as of occasional mythological, subjects was purely in the vein of genre; not, however, with any resort to emotional or dramatic appeal, as in the case of Rembrandt. In translating the old scene into the vernacular of Dutch middle-class or low-class life, Steen preserves nothing of its religious significance, or even of its epic dignity. The theme with him becomes simply a vehicle for characterization and possible humor. Thus, in _The Marriage at Cana_, Christ is standing at the table in the act of blessing a Dutch wedding-party, but all this is in the background. The salient features of the scene are occurring in the foreground, where a fat cellarer hands a glass of wine to a fiddler, and a slattern woman leans against a cask, giving a drink to a boy. In _The Expulsion of Hagar_, Sarah sits inside the door, “examining” the little Isaac’s head; Hagar weeps as Abraham sadly dismisses her: while Ishmael strings his bow, two spaniels are catching fleas, and sheep, cows, and poultry are scattered through the yard. Meanwhile, though the pictures make no appeal to the spiritual imagination, the sensuous imagination may be stimulated by the choiceness of their charm of color. Perhaps, however, if one wishes to epitomize Steen’s attitude toward the subjects he took from the Bible and the classics, one may best compare his rendering of _The Disciples at Emmaus_ (Rijks Museum) with Rembrandt’s treatment of the same subject in the Louvre. Instead of Christ being the pathetic center of divine illumination, as in the latter picture, Steen has placed Him in the shadow of the background, leaving the room, while the disciples, attended by a serving-woman, are gazing disconsolately at the table, which is garnished with--of all imaginably incongruous things--a lemon.