Attrib. to Pieter Aertsen (1507/08-1575), kitchenmaid and customers in a hostel, oil on canvas 81 x

Attrib. to Pieter Aertsen (1507/08-1575), kitchenmaid and customers in a hostel, oil on canvas 81 x
Attrib. to Pieter Aertsen (1507/08-1575), kitchenmaid and customers in a hostel, oil on canvas
Pieter Aertsen was a Dutch master, both by origin and because the scene of his mature work was Amsterdam. He was probably born there too in 1507 or 1508, and according to Van Mander also absolved his apprenticeship in Amsterdam under Allart Claesz. Between 1535 and about 1555 he lived in Antwerp, a time when Pieter Coecke (after 1527) and Frans Floris (after 1541) set the tone there.
During his stay in Antwerp, he introduced a new genre of hostel kitchens and market scenes.
Aertsen did not paint individualized peasants and cooks, but the peasant and the cook as types. Breughel himself and even Adriaan van Ostade did not invest their figures with marked identity. This is rather different from the painters of the 19th century who worked with models and were really doing portraits.
What transfigures this new genre of kitchen scenes in an interior is the sense of humour and the joyous sharing of everyday life.
Our kitchen piece contains allusions to the power of seduction and eroticism. The chicken roasting strung on a skewer, the farmer's hand touching the maid, and the servant at the back who wastes milk from his farmer's spoon are just a few examples.

Important remark from the restoration report by Thierry Eeckhout of 1983. Originally painted on a wooden panel and transferred to canvas in the early 19th century, without damaging the paint layer. On request, we can send you the certification report by Dr. Proff. Frans Baudwin.

Literature: Max J. Friedlander, Antonis Mor and his Contemporaries, 1975, illustrations 330 and 331

Provenance: private collection in Bruges.
81 x 106 cm. (31.8 x 41.7 in.)
Condition: The full condition report is available on our website carlobonte.be