Painting close reading- An Elderly Couple at a Table

The painting I’ve chosen to analyze is called “An Elderly Couple at a Table,” and was painted by Frans Van Mieris Il Vecchio between 1650 and 1655.  It depicts, as the title suggests, an elderly couple seated at a table with a meal prepared before them.  It is a relatively modest one, appearing to contain fish, bread, and a mug of something that I assume to be beer.  Neither person is eating the meal in the painting, but the woman is drinking water as the man slices bread, seeming to serve her.  The room in which they are seated is relatively dark, but the sun shines through their window onto the table, the couple, and their food.  The perspective of the image is interesting, as the viewer looks at the couple through an arched window of some kind.  On the windowsill in the foreground, we see a flowering potted plant on the left, and bunches of carrots and garlic on the right.  The mood of the painting is relatively subdued, but not dreary.  The sunlight and the sufficient amount of food on their table, as well as the excess food on the windowsill, shows that they aren’t going through hard times.  The image is decidedly human-focused, and simply presents a moment of daily life, rather than a special event.