Joachim Beuckelaer

Joachim Beuckelaer (c. 1533 – c. 1570/4) was a Flemish painter specialising in market and kitchen scenes with elaborate displays of food and household equipment. His development of the genre of market and kitchen scenes was influential on the development of still life art in Northern Europe as well as Italy and Spain. He also painted still lifes with no figures in the central scene. He further added the staffage (i.e. the figures) or the garments in works of other local painters, such as Anthonis Mor.

Life Details about the life of the artist are scarce. Beuckelaer was born in Antwerp into a family of painters. He was likely the son of the painter Mattheus Beuckeleer and the grandson of the painter Cornelis de Beuckelaer. His brother, known as Huybrecht Beuckeleer, also became a painter. The works of Huybrecht have occasionally been misattributed to Joachim. He possibly learned to paint in the workshop of his uncle, the Dutch painter Pieter Aertsen, who had married his aunt Kathelijne Beuckelaer. Beuckelaer was reportedly not getting high prices for his works during his lifetime. It was only after his death that his works dramatically increased in price.

The date of his death is not known with certainty but fell likely between 1570 and 1574. During the 1560s, especially during the early part of the decade, Beuckelaer painted some purely religious works, possibly because there was little demand for his kitchen and market scenes. For these religious works, unlike for the kitchen and market scenes, drawings are known. His still life of a carcass referred to as Slaughtered pig (Wallraf-Richartz Museum) dated 1563 is likely the earliest dated example of this subject. In the Poultry dealer and a young woman with an array of fruit, vegetables, fish and game on a table before a house, the poultry dealer is holding a large chicken and standing close behind the young woman. As in other cultures, the chicken or rooster was frequently a reference to male genitalia and sexuality, while the Dutch word 'vogel' (bird) was slang for sexual intercourse (as in the verb 'vogelen').

As an antidote to these earthly temptations, Beuckelaer's market scenes, like those of Aertsen, often incorporate biblical episodes in the background. The scene appearing most frequently in the background is that of Christ in the House of Mary and Martha. It recounts the story of Christ visiting the sisters at their home in Bethany, and reprimanding Martha for busying herself with household matters rather than heeding his message. The moral message of these religious scenes was to encourage viewers to leave behind the temptations of the flesh and move towards the spiritual food offered by the Christian faith. In the year 1563 Beuckelaer was experimenting with more outspoken landscape settings in an innovative way, which was influential on later artists in Antwerp.

Beuckelaer was also employed painting the figures or the garments in the work of other artists such as Anthonis Mor and Cornelis van Dalem. Northern Italian painters such as Vincenzo Campi and Jacopo Bassano were also influenced by his work.