A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms
Pieter Aertsen, 1551
This 1551 work by Pieter Aertsen is an early example of the so-called inverted still life, in which the still-life elements occupy the foreground while the narrative is pushed into the background. The dominant subject is a butcher's stall crowded with meats, sausages, fish, bread, cheese and kitchen utensils, rendered with meticulous realism. In the distance, seen through openings in the stall, small landscapes show the Holy Family on the flight into Egypt, handing alms to the poor. The contrast between that generosity and the abundance on display invites a moral reading: food for the body set against food for the soul, with a warning against gluttony. Other details reinforce this, such as the fish, associated with Lent, or the tavern in the background, where a scene of the Prodigal Son hints at dissolute living. The painting dates from a period when Aertsen was working in Antwerp, and it is considered a pioneering step toward still life as an independent genre. Several versions of the subject survive, a sign of its popularity.
- Painter
- Pieter Aertsen
- Date
- 1551
- Medium
- oil paint, panel
- Dimensions
- 116 × 169 cm
- Museum
- Museo de arte de Carolina del Norte, Raleigh
- Movement
- Northern Renaissance
- Genre
- inverted still-life
- Depicts
- meat, market stall, Flight into Egypt
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