Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (Velázquez) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Christ in the House of Martha and Mary |
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| Artist | Diego Velázquez |
| Year | 1618 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 63 cm × 103.5 cm (25 in × 40.7 in) |
| Location | National Gallery, London |
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary is an oil-on-canvas painting from Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, dating to his Seville period. Housed in the National Gallery, London, United Kingdom, it was painted in 1618, shortly after he completed his apprenticeship with Pacheco. At this time, Velázquez was experimenting with the potential of the bodegones, a form of genre painting set in taverns (the meaning of bodegon) or kitchens which was frequently used to relate scenes of contemporary Spain to themes and stories from the Bible. Often they contained depictions of people working with food and drink.
Flemish models
The composition shows the influence of Flemish art from the previous century when Pieter Aertsen, followed by his nephew Joachim Beuckelaer, developed a type of large painting which combines a small New Testament scene in the background with a contemporary kitchen scene with sumptuous still life painting of foodstuffs. Several examples use Christ, Martha and Mary as the background scene, including The Four Elements: Fire, by Beuckelaer (1570), also in the National Gallery. There are two Aertsens with the same combination in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna a still life kitchen scene with the Martha and Mary scene again shown through a doorway, which is compared to the Velázquez by MacLaren (illustrated). Another Beuckelaer painting (illustrated) in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, shows in the foreground a kitchen scene with still live meat and maids, and through a passage the scene with Christ and the sisters in near-grisaille. Martha is presumably the figure nearest the viewer who seems to be on her way to the kitchen. There is a third Beuckelaer in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. It is very likely that Velázquez had seen engravings of these or similar works.
Provenance
This may be the work listed as by Velázquez in an inventory of 1637 of the house of Fernando Afán de Ribera, duke of Alcalá de los Gazules who died that year. It was described as "a kitchen where a woman is pounding garlic" without mention of the religious scene. It reached England probably already owned by Lt. Col. Henry Packe, who fought in the Peninsular War, and after the death of his son William in 1880 was auctioned at Christie's in 1881. It was bought by Sir William Henry Gregory who bequeathed it to the National Gallery in 1892.
See also
In Spanish: Cristo en casa de Marta y María (Velázquez) para niños
- List of works by Diego Velázquez
