This painting once formed part of a series depicting the Five Senses, a traditional subject that the artist has transformed by adapting it to the fashion for banquet scenes. A woman in fancy dress, the personification of Taste, prepares to eat an oyster, while her companions raise a glass of wine.

Taste's table is laden with prepared food, while the foreground is filled with provisions such as game birds, deer, fish, crustaceans, artichokes, melons and grapes. The painting of Adam and Eve on the back wall signals a moralizing intent.

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