Pieter Aertsen

Pieter Aertsen painted market stalls, kitchens and butcher’s shops piled with meat, fish, bread and vegetables, often with a small religious scene tucked into the background. This bold reversal, with the everyday in front and the sacred behind, was his invention, and it opened the way for still-life and genre painting in the Netherlands.

Born in Amsterdam, he trained there and then worked in Antwerp for about two decades before returning home. His Butcher’s Stall with the Flight into Egypt of 1551, in Uppsala, is often cited as the first painting of its kind. His nephew Joachim Beuckelaer carried on the formula.

Many of his altarpieces were destroyed in the iconoclasm of the sixteenth century, so his kitchen and market scenes are the heart of what survives. Look closely at the food: it is painted life-size and with great relish.