Netherlandish painter of large still lifes, market and kitchen pieces - active in Antwerp. Beuckelaer was the nephew and pupil of Pieter Aertsen, and he followed his uncle’s preference for scenes in which a religious subject is relegated to the background by the still life or genre content ( The Cook, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). He seems to have been the first painter to depict fish stalls.
Joachim Beuckelaer, the nephew and pupil of Pieter Aertsen, specialised in market scenes and genre paintings. Following the path opened up by his uncle, he responded to the growing demand of a prosperous bourgeoisie that wished to decorate their houses with works that reflected the lay character of their surroundings, whilst retaining a moral and religious significance.
Jesus’ visit to the house of Martha and Mary, taken from St Luke’s Gospel, formed the basis of several representations from the mid-16th century onwards. In the religious context of the time, this scene illustrated one of the fundamental differences opposing Catholics and Protestants. The latter sought salvation in action whilst the former placed greater value on the contemplative life. Here the artist relegates the teaching of the divine word to the back of the painting, devoting the entire foreground to active life, incarnated by Martha, and in so doing juxtaposing a genre scene and a still-life. Like Aertsen, he assembles the domestic scene in his studio, drawing from a repertory of standard objects and utensils that he was to constantly reproduce elsewhere in various combinations. Again like Aertsen, he has borrowed from Serlio’s treatise the Renaissance architecture in which he places his composition.
However, it would be unfair to dismiss Beuckelaer as a mere follower. Rather the artist stands out by his extraordinary ability to reproduce textures in their full sensuousness, using a light and subtle stroke and a delicately gradated palette. With considerable virtuosity and delight he precisely depicts the varnished terracotta of the crocks, the flaccid skin of the plucked fowl, the starched but still supple serviettes, and the fragility of the hair drawn back over the kitchen-maid’s temples. The soft greasiness of the meat or the velvety softness of the mallard duck are set against the flat glint of the tin pot and the glazed transparency of the cabochon glasses or berkemeier. A search for harmony guides him in the distribution of objects, colours, light and shade, in a careful composition that leaves nothing to chance.
Multiplying the different levels of interpretation, the image moves beyond a simple illustration of the Gospel story to become a philosophical exegesis of visible reality. Invested with moral and symbolic content, each object reminds man of his carnal nature and warns him against the dangers of voluptuousness.
This painting is a model for a larger composition of unknown destination.
In this painting Beuckelaer illustrated the widespread notion that food and heat are the source of unbridled sexuality and excess of all kinds. The servant’s gesture with her hand on a cabbage, symbol of an excessively luxurious and spendthrift life, may duplicate the licentious scene in the background.
Pieter Aertsen’s nephew and pupil, Joachim Beuckelaer, also painted market scenes. However, his work often lacks the subtleties and juxtapositions of his uncle’s work. In the present example, there is no biblical narrative in the background. The presentation of uninhibited human sexuality is much more overt. The two-pouched purse between the man’s legs is easily associated with the male genitals. The prominent presence of birds, eggs, and the large empty basket carry overt sexual allusions.
The artist took the composition from Aertsen. The fruit and vegetable still-life at the bottom is remarkable.
The painter depicts objects in every-day use, primarily tools, kitchen appliances and dishes made of diverse materials, which correspond in every detail to the equipment used at the time. The costumes of the figures mirror the clothes worn at the time by Dutch market women and country folk.
This painting shows three people: a man edges closer to the younger of two market women, apparently with an unequivocal proposition. The two are surrounded by the goods for sale, such as butter, cheese, eggs and poultry in baskets, barrels and on wooden cheese plates. The goods displayed in such abundance in Beuckelaer’s painting bear a metaphorical message which is erotic rather than religious. They are perceived as aphrodisiacs or used colloquially as synonyms for sexual feelings and practices.
Beuckelaer was Pieter Aertsen’s nephew, and he painted similar market scenes. He frequently discarded the biblical scenes the presence of which is characteristic in Aertsen’s market scenes. This painting presents a typical example. Here the market woman almost becomes an accessory to the over-abundant baskets and bowls containing a rich variety of fruit and vegetables that reach right up to the upper edge of the painting. In this way the artist tries to show the impressive quantitative results of the new agricultural methods. The greenish-purple iridescence of the cabbages, with their bizarre curls and wrinkly whirls, bears witness to improvements in fertilization, and the abundance of different kinds is meant to show the large number of refinements and crosses between the different fruits.
The picture expresses an ambivalence towards this opulent fruitfulness, offering a criticism of the covetousness awakened by the sight of it, such a moral purpose being an integral element of the aesthetic presentation of the foodstuffs depicted. The offering of a bird was an unmistakable reference to carnal love (the word vogelen, which also has the sense of ‘to bird’, meaning ‘to copulate’); cabbage was considered a symbol of the feminine, being traditionally served at weddings and, eaten with oil, it was also used as a kind of contraceptive, while carrots and gherkins were associated with the phallic and masculine. The other fruits, too, can be understood as metaphors for the whole gamut of feelings of love and lust. In displaying all these foods, the painting is a warning against carnal desire, lack of inhibition and excess.
Radishes, carrots, beans and onions sit alongside different kinds of cabbages, plums and cherries; nuts, grapes, melons and berries are heaped together.
The theme of the slaughtered pig and the tradition of the Netherlandish butchers’ shop were probably established by Aertsen, who painted many such pictures. The genre continued until Rembrandt and beyond. It is also supposed to have a religious significance, as an allegory of the Crucifixion and the Eucharist, represented respectively by the pig in the foreground and the wine being brought from the cellar in the background.
In the background a biblical scene (Mary in the house of Martha) can be seen. Beuckelaer was a pupil of his uncle Pieter Aertsen. This painting shows some similarities with the paintings of Aertsen.
The allegoric painting represents a poultry market with the biblical scene The Prodigal Son in the background.
The allegoric painting represents a fruit and vegetable market with the biblical scene The Flight into Egypt in the background.
The allegoric painting represents a kitchen scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary in the background.
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 18 minutes):
George Frideric Handel: Fireworks Music
The allegoric painting represents a fish market with the biblical scene The Miraculous Draught of Fishes in the background.
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 28 minutes):
George Frideric Handel: Water Music, Suite No. 1
Joachim Beuckelaer took the market and kitchen painting created by Pieter Aertsen, and developed them into an independent genre which remained popular until well into the 17th century. The didactic element of Beuckelaer’s paintings did not manifest itself in propaganda on behalf of Catholic orthodoxy, but in the cheerful censure of the wickedness of worldly pleasure. His paintings are full of allusions to sensuality, sexuality and fertility, with vegetables, fruit, fish, meat and cooking utensils piled up around a few figures. In his best works, Beuckelaer mixes a strong sense of space and detail on the one hand, with unity of composition on the other.
In this well-stocked kitchen, in which the disciples Peter and John are keeping themselves busy, the preparation for the meal are dominated by two preoccupied cooks. Beuckelaer concentrated mainly on the convincing imitation of textures: textiles, vegetables, fruit, poultry and other foods. In his perfectionism he can be considered the forerunner of the 17th-century masters of still-life.
In the background of the painting is the story of Christ in the house of Martha and Mary.
Like landscape and genre paintings, the still life also achieved a high degree of independence at an early date, through the pioneering work of Pieter Aertsen and his nephew and pupil Joachim Beuckelaer. These masters also played a significant part in the development of the genre scene. After a number of tentative attempts, fully-fledged genre paintings were first produced by Quentin Massys, followed by Jan Sanders van Hemessen and Marinus van Reymerswaele. But it was Aertsen and Beuckelaer who popularised the genre by concentrating on market and fair scenes. In the Woman Selling Vegetables, Beuckelaer combined still-life elements with figures, achieving a powerful, decorative effect by the introduction of strong local colours.
