Dutch painters had this hidden message in their paintings which is part of our vocabulary today. Matter of fact, Gainsborough was commissioned to paint a portrait of his friend, a wealthy land owner, and his wife. Once the wife saw the direction the family portrait was going, her sitting with a pheasant in her lap, the commission stopped and we have one of the most famous incomplete paintings of all times. If an artist wanted to portray a woman as a real bitch, he would paint her holding a dead pheasant. This was known in art circles as a woman holding the cock. The rest is history.
