Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

religious

A kitchen scene combined with a religious subject is set within Renaissance architecture. The background depicts the story of Christ in the house of Martha and Mary. This painting marks the transition from the late mediaeval practice of depicting religious subjects to a new era, in which art depicts the everyday life of the self confident bourgeoisie.

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About the Artist

Pieter Aertsen

1508 – 1575

Netherlandish painter, active in his native Amsterdam and in Antwerp. A pioneer of still life and genre painting, he is best known for scenes that at first glance look like pure examples of these types, but which in fact have a religious scene incorporated in them ( Butcher's Stall with the Flight into Egypt, University of Uppsala, 1551). Aertsen was the head of a long dynasty of painters, of whom the most talented was his nephew and pupil Joachim Beuckelaer.

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