The Temptation
Artist: Pietro Longhi (Pietro Falca) (Italian, 1701–1785)
Original Dimensions: 24" x 19 1/2"
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
About Artwork: (1746) "With remarkable frankness, the arrival of a sex worker and her procuress is announced to a gentleman wearing a dressing gown at his breakfast table. A second cup and saucer suggest that he has anticipated her visit. The intermediary male figure’s ostentatious dress seems not to be Venetian, though his identity remains uncertain. As often in Longhi’s compositions, a painting within the painting—here an erotic mythological subject—clarifies the actions about to take place." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

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