Pipes play a slightly surreal part in this 17th-century Dutch painting in which objects and people interact suggestively. A woman has passed out with her white clay pipe in her hand, its stem leading the eye towards what amounts to a still life arrangement beside her: there is a richly decorated cup for spirits, presumably gin, beside a fanned out deck of cards, a mirror, another pipe and a jug of booze. The implication is pretty clear that she’s fallen asleep after a long session of drinking, smoking and card playing – but what about the mirror? It suggests vanity, and in this picture that may mean loose morals or even prostitution. The men loom and mock, and one pokes his pipe at her. • National Gallery, London |