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'The Four Elements: Fire. A Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary in the Background', 1569
by Joachim Beuckelaer
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This ambitious painting combines the still life of haunches of meat and poultry being prepared for cooking on the fire beyond with a dramatic use of perspective with multiple vanishing points. Beyond the kitchen Christ is shown seated with Martha and Mary.
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.
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Photo © The National Gallery, London
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