Kitchen Scene

1620 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

interior

Joachim Wtewael's rare kitchen scenes, such as the Kitchen Scene in Berlin, were the model for this lascivious picture of the 1620s. A pretty young cook responds to a strapping farmhand's offer of whatever she desires by jamming a chicken onto a spit. The composition may be considered a 1620s remodeling of this and similar older designs, such as by Cornelis Jacobsz Delff, Pieter Cornelisz van Rijck, and Floris van Schooten.

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About the Artist

Peter Wtewael

1596 – 1660

Dutch painter, the comparatively obscure son of the Utrecht Mannerist Joachim Wtewael and elder brother to the painter Johan Wtewael (1598-1652). He appears to have studied only with his father, and also shared his business concerns and interest in politics. In September 1635, at the age of thirty-nine, he joined the Reformed Church, which allowed him to assume his aged father's position at the City Council in October 1636. In 1642, he took over his deceased brother-in-law's seat as a court magistrate and served for many years. He also became a deacon and elder in his church. Like his younger brother, Johan, Peter Wtewael remained a bachelor, and lived in his parents' house in Utrecht. Johan registered in the painters' guild in 1639, a year after his father's death, but Peter never bothered to do so. Peter Wtewael closely followed his father's style, which he probably first absorbed in making copies. In the 1620s, however, he also responded to recent works by Abraham Bloemaert and Gerrit van Honthorst, thus achieving a distinctive amalgam of old and new.

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