Ferdinand Bol, a successful pupil of Rembrandt, represented in luminous color this episode from an Italian play popular in the Netherlands. The tragicomedy, set in an idyllic wilderness, recounts the forbidden love of the shepherd Mirtillo for a nymph, Amarillis. Mirtillo, at left, disguised as a maiden, competes in a kissing game with Amarillis’s attendants. After the lovers share a passionate kiss, Amarillis crowns Mirtillo the winner. In Amarillis’s retinue, Bol included a dark-skinned woman, possibly inspired by an actual member of Amsterdam’s Black community. Though slavery was illegal in the Dutch Republic, painters often depicted Black people as servants of white subjects.