The candle flame illuminates a young woman in a lavish outfit. On the left in the shadows, the matchmaker is ready to sell her to a man you can only see silhouetted. The hidden light-source effect was Honthorst's own invention. These candlelight scenes earned him the nickname ‘Gherardo delle Notti’ ('Gerard of the nights') in eighteenth-century Rome. The dramatic yet natural illumination painted by Caravaggio (1571-1610) inspired Honthorst to paint scenes with artificial lighting. His night-time pieces earned him a reputation in Italy and also in northern Europe.

The procuress arranges paid love by setting up men with women of questionable repute. Once the men can no longer resist the temptation of the services offered by the ladies, she cashes in on their wallet. The elderly woman on the left has achieved her goal. With satisfaction, she points at the young girl at the table who is gazing rapturously at the man opposite her. Her colourful dress, the feathers in her hair and her decolletage clearly distinguish her from the average citizen. The feathers are a reference to her frivolous character, while the lute that she holds by the neck had a clear sexual significance in the seventeenth century. The young man is stretching out his hand to offer her some coins; the candlelight causes the shadows of his hand and that of the girl to merge on the lute.

Scenes of men being seduced by women are closely related to the depictions of the New Testament theme of the prodigal son (Luke 15:13). Of all the parables, this is the most frequently portrayed story in the visual arts of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The scene in which the young man squanders his inheritance cavorting with ladies of pleasure in an inn was extremely popular. The theme of the procuress was introduced in Utrecht by Dirck van Baburen. In 1662 he painted the same elderly woman as Honthorst, demanding payment from a customer who already has his arm around a lute-playing prostitute by pointing at her open palm. [text 2023]