Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
ArtistAfter
Joos Goemare
(Flemish, ca. 1575-1618)
Dateca. 1600
MediumOil on oak panel
Dimensions40 x 50 in. (101.6 x 127 cm)
Overall, Frame: 42 x 53 x 2 1/2 in. (106.7 x 134.6 x 6.4 cm)
ClassificationsEuropean art
Credit LineGift of Emile E. Wolf
Object number53.59.1
DescriptionThis is an oil on oak-panel painting. The technical structure of the painting is traditional of the Northern European painters. The viewer is shown into the room and through the room, in this case to another room that has a window at back. It is a biblical story set in current 16th century costume and house. The kitchen is floored with red terra cotta tiles. The diagonal lines of the tiles lead to a vanishing point. It is filled with cooking pots, plates and a set of the ten commandments atop the cupboard in the back. In the foreground is a cornucopia of food, carrots, apples, pears, grapes, cherries, artichokes, turnips, cabbage, at least 5 different kinds of fish, wild game, fowl, pork, mutton, and beef. The middle ground introduces the viewer to the main subjects: a haloed, red robed Christ, with Mary at his feet with a book open in her lap, and Martha standing with a dead duck in her left hand, gesturing with her right while speaking to Christ gather together in kitchen. In the middle ground of the kitchen, a woman tends the cooking on the fire on the right and behind Christ, Mary, and Martha three men are actively engrossed in their own conversation. A man steps over the threshold from the back room to the kitchen, tying together the two rooms/middle and background. The room in the back has a table with people sitting around, presumably waiting to eat. The back wall has an unopened window and the side wall, a painting of the annunciation. Two small dogs scamper about freely.
Label TextFollower of Joos Goemare
Flemish, active 1575–1618
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, ca. 1600
Oil on wood
A smorgasbord of food fills the foreground of this bustling kitchen. Yet this celebration of nature’s bounty also conceals a stern warning, as the Bible story in the background reveals. When Christ visited the sisters Martha and Mary, Martha hurried to prepare a meal for him. Instead of helping, Mary sat and spoke with Christ. When Martha complained, Christ criticized her for worrying about the meal and praised Mary for her devotion. In so doing, he stressed the importance of the spiritual life over earthly preoccupations. A contemporary viewer would have known immediately that this overstuffed kitchen symbolizes the snares of the material world. As Mary demonstrates, such distractions had to be resisted in order to achieve life’s deeper purpose.
Gift of a friend of Norfolk 53.59.1
