Joachim Beuckelaer - The Four Elements: Fire [1570]

Joachim Beuckelaer - The Four Elements: Fire [1570], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Fire is one of Beuckelaer's most ambitious works, combining the still life of haunches of meat and poultry being prepared for cooking on the fire beyond with a dramatic use of perspective constructions involving multiple vanishing points. Beyond the kitchen Christ is shown seated with Martha and Mary.

From an Antwerp family of painters, Beuckelaer trained in the studio of Pieter Aertsen. In 1560 he became an independent master, and continued to develop themes in painting pioneered by Aertsen, arguably surpassing him in skill. Both Beuckelaer and Aertsen are particularly known for their market and kitchen scenes, which display provisions and domestic activity with illusionistic details but on an often heroic scale. These scenes frequently form a foil to a biblical subject in the background, and suggest a deliberate contrast between the physical and the spiritual.

[Oil on canvas, 157.5 x 215.5 cm]