 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'The Four Elements: Earth. A Fruit and Vegetable Market with the Flight into Egypt in the Background', 1569
by Joachim Beuckelaer
|
The produce is brilliantly depicted: vegetables tumble from the basket held by the woman on the left, and cascade towards the viewer. Sixteen different varieties of vegetable and fruit have been identified. The tiny figures of the Holy Family during their Flight into Egypt can be seen crossing a bridge in the far distance on the left.
This is one of four pictures which takes as its theme the four elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire. In the art of the Low Countries in the later 16th and 17th centuries it became common to symbolise the elements by references to the natural world. Here, seductive representations of market produce for sale or for cooking are combined with relevant Biblical episodes. Beuckelaer's series of paintings are among the earliest and most accomplished fusions of these themes. These four pictures were produced in Antwerp, probably for a patron in Italy.
|
Photo © The National Gallery, London
|
|
|
|
