The painting shows Jacob Jordaens playing the lute with his wife Catharina van Noort and her siblings, and on the left in the background Adam van Noort and his wife, Jordaens' teacher and father-in-law.

In the past it was assumed that the painting was created in connection with the betrothal with the daughter of his teacher in 1616. Nils Büttner has, however, pointed out that there are no comparable representations within the genre of betrothal paintings. He has argued that the flower wreath in the bride's hair and the flower basket allude to the ancient story of Pausias and Glycera, which Pliny retold in his "Naturalis historia" (XXXV, 125). According to this story, the painter Pausias had created a portrait of his wife Glycera in order to compete with the art of flower arranging invented by her. The resulting painting was widely admired and considered extremely precious.