Christ and the Adulteress

1559 · Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

still-life

In the 16th century Antwerp rose to the position of the most significant trade and banking centre in Europe. In the area around this town there was an extensive cottage industry for the processing of English cloth and the production of glassware, soap, sugar, and other goods. The changing conditions in agriculture were almost equally revolutionary.

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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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