Market Scene

genre

This Market Scene - a painting in vertical format - shows a column of sea food on the left, building up and culminating in a ray and - directly opposite, on the right - a large number of fruits of the field and the garden. Wedged between this enormous abundance of produce, the farmer and his wife appear to be mere appendages whose job is only that of proudly pointing with silent gestures to the victuals that are on offer. The ostentatious wealth of fruit and vegetables in the market scenes of Aertsen and Beuckelaer may lead to the false conclusion that the population had plenty to eat.

Loading map…

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.

View all works →