The term phalaena, a moth with a thin body and broad delicate wings that comes out at night and is fatally attracted to fire, is here associated with the women who offered to escort men at elegant coteries. At the table in the foreground, a mature man observes one of them, who in turn engages the viewer with a troubling expression.

G. Navarro, Carlos, Invitadas. Fragmentos sobre mujeres, ideología y artes plásticas en España (1833-1931), Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2020, p.164 nº 18