Market Scene

still-life

The painting is an Ecce Homo fragment. Similarly to other biblical paintings of Aertsen, the biblical event takes place at the back, while the foreground is dominated by a market scene.. Somewhere in the background, the picture - cut off at the top - affords a small glimpse of the platform where the masses are shouting 'Barabbas' (John 19:4-6).

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 →