We know something about the techniques used in commercial-religious art - not enough, of course, but some things have come down to us over the ages in the form of instructional manuals. Since assistants so often worked on great pieces, manuals were written to help them master their craft and work up to the level of the great artists. One such book describes the technique of "cutting out" figures from popular journals and placing them in a picture to study how the figures will relate to each other. This may be an early work, a first draft, intended to show how the final painting will look.

The man appears to be in the scene, but the woman casts no shadows and seems to float weightlessly on the floor. Possibly this is a completed work, and she is his delusion - but some have suggested that her unreality underscores the unreality of the entire scene, and she actually exists, and is startled to find the man of her dreams in the kitchen.

But he still won't help unload the dishwasher.

An alternate interpretation believes this is an example of the Copper Kettle Cult, which used the recepticles to hold souls until they could be judged by the mother-in-law.