Fish Market

Joachim Beuckelaer Netherlandish
1568
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 637
This masterfully composed view of a fish market represents a new kind of scene of everyday life, initiated by Beuckelaer and his teacher and uncle, Pieter Aertsen, who lived and worked in Antwerp. It was painted during a tumultuous era of religious warfare, which disrupted the art market and motivated a change from purely religious to more secular themes. Here, the flourishing fish industry is celebrated through the display of great bounty from the sea. Such pictures may have contained a moralizing subtext, warning against the excesses of food and sexual pleasures.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Fish Market
  • Artist: Joachim Beuckelaer (Netherlandish, Antwerp 1533–1575 Antwerp)
  • Date: 1568
  • Medium: Oil on Baltic oak
  • Dimensions: 50 5/8 × 68 7/8 in. (128.6 × 174.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift and Bequest of George Blumenthal, by exchange, 2015
  • Object Number: 2015.146
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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