Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice (The Cheats) by Valentin de Boulogne

After Lucas van Leyden, The Card Players, probably c. 1550/1599, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection 1961.9.27

The image also carried a moral message. Large sums of money have been wagered. The man in the background who holds his hand in his cloak is an emblem for laziness (Proverbs 19:24, “A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom”). The woman at the left who looks confidently out at the viewer warns against the seductive powers of women: pointing to the money and revealing the hearts in her hand, she will win the game of love.

Move your mouse over the image to reveal the man and woman mentioned above.

Lucas van Leyden presents both the allure and the dangers of cardplaying—themes that are present in almost all images of cardplaying in the seventeenth century.