Pieter Aertsen - The Fat Kitchen, An Allegory

Pieter Aertsen - The Fat Kitchen, An Allegory, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The table is groaning under its load of meat, fish, bread, and fresh vegetables. To the right, behind the table, a peasant stands by his family, regarding us with an eloquent look. He pointedly turns his back to what goes on in the left half of the picture where we get a glimpse of a room with two couples, one young and the other old, gathered around the fireplace. The young man is in high spirits, raising his jug of ale as he puts his arm around the girl. The old couple stare into space with a melancholy air, making them the key to understanding the picture: it is a warning against gluttony, drunkenness, and moral looseness.

The still life genre was created by Pieter Aertsen in an Antwerp that was the leading commercial centre in Europe at the time. To Aertsen, the arrangements of food, the symbolism of which was explained in the figure scenes in the background, were a necessary alternative to religious painting. During the early years of his career he created a number of altarpieces that he, to his great wrath and sorrow, saw destroyed during the iconoclastic riots of the Reformation.

Pieter Aertsen - The Egg Dance [1552]

There's a cheerful atmosphere in the tavern. Everyone is having fun, dancing and drinking. What is the man in the foreground doing with his left hand nonchalantly resting on the shoulder of the young woman next to him? She seems to accept his advances and points out the drunkard - the man dancing on eggshells in the middle of the room. Pieter Aertsen has packed his Egg Dance, a work dating from 1552, full of double meanings.

Egg dancing was a popular game played during the springtime folk festivities. First a chalk circle was drawn on the floor. Then, accompanied by bagpipe music, the player would use his feet to roll an egg out of a bowl, keeping it inside the circle, and turn the bowl upside down on top of the egg. All this had to be done without touching the flowers, leaves or anything else - and of course the egg had to remain whole. The first to succeed would win a prize: usually a basket of eggs. Here the basket is shown in the foreground.

At the back of the room an old man is playing the bagpipes. Because of its shape, the instrument often symbolised the male genitalia. In the window is a jug containing a leek, a vegetable of the onion family. A sixteenth-century viewer would immediately have realised that the scene was a room in a brothel. Onions were supposed to be a stimulant. All around lie onion flowers, leek leaves and mussels, which were supposed to have the same quality. It was also thought to be true of eggs, the theme of the painting.

Pieter Aertsen has given this piquant scene a moral message that appears to reflect his own moral reservations. A joker is depicted on one of the wooden boards on the table, left, and on the other a goat jumping. These are cards in a Tarot set. In the sixteenth century everyone would have understood that these symbolised drunkenness and lust. The reel above the fireplace on the right is a sign of folly: in fact 'reeling' is still used today to describe a person swaying or staggering from the effects of alcohol.

Pieter Aertsen - The Adoration of the Magi [c.1560]

The baby Jesus is sitting on the lap of his mother, the Virgin Mary. He is holding his hand up in a blessing. Before him kneels a king offering a gift of gold. This is Melchior, the oldest of the three kings who came to pay homage to the infant Christ. Behind Mary, in a red gown is her husband Joseph. According to tradition, Jesus was born in a stable. The donkey, the ox and the shabby straw roof remind us of this. The scene takes place against the background of a ruined palace with marble columns and steps. Pieter Aertsen painted this large, colourful panel in around 1560. It is a varied scene with many attractive details such as the rather homely basket of clothes beside Mary and the king's entourage with camels on the left of the background.

Only one of the three kings is pictured on this panel. In fact, the painting is no longer complete. It was originally the centre panel of an altarpiece. The other two kings were pictured on the side panels. The right-hand panel has been lost. The left-hand panel, depicting the Moorish King Caspar and his entourage, has been preserved. This king is offering a vase of myrrh.