Market Scene

genre

Genre-painting, as an independent subject, originated in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. Before then scenes from everyday life had often been depicted in the background of pictures with a primarily religious content, but it was only after about the middle of the sixteenth century that many painters began to feel their principal task was to represent everyday life for its own sake. With Pieter Bruegel the Elder, also called Peasant Bruegel, genre painting came to be generally accepted and found a great many adherents in the Netherlands.

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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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