An extremely courtly interpretation of the Biblical parable which contrasts the wealth and refinement of the father's home with the poverty of the profligate son. The nude statues decorating the fireplace and the other luxurious furnishings do not work as a moralizing contrast to the son's poverty in line with conventional vanitas imagery., This is, after all, the house of the good father who is already outside restoring wealth and social position to his penitent son. If this reading is correct, the painting uses the parable not to question wealth but to distinguish between its virtuous consumption in an elegant but moral palace and its squandering in a seedy tavern amidst prostitutes.
