Kitchen Still Life with Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

Phoebus Focus II

Things are not always what they seem. Take this Kitchen Still Life with Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, for instance. Were it not for the title, a casual glance might reveal nothing more than a common or garden still life. But look again, more closely this time, and the painting opens up a whole world, as this edition of Phoebus Focus shows. Frans Ykens (1601-1693) was a skilled exponent of the splendid Flemish tradition of kitchen still lifes and market scenes. The genre became hugely popular in Antwerp’s flourishing sixteenth-century heyday and is exemplified in works by the likes of Pieter Aertsen (c.1508-1575) and his pupil and nephew Joachim Beuckelaer (c.1533-1574).