Art or Pornography?

"Pieter Aertsen (Netherlandish, active in Antwerp, 1508-1575)
A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms, 1551
Oil on panel, 45 1/2 x 66 1/2 in. (115.5 x 169.0 cm.)
Purchased with funds from Wendell and Linda Murphy and various donors, by exchange, 93.2

Pieter Aertsen was one of the first artists to paint "inverted still lifes," works in which the still-life elements are placed prominently in the foreground, while the narrative elements are relegated to the background. A Meat Stall is Aertsen's masterpiece in this genre. A feast for the mind as well as the eyes, this remarkably executed painting abounds with rich symbolism. The juxtaposition of the precisely rendered meats and other foods with the Holy Family in the background symbolically links food for the body with the spiritual "bread of life"- food for the soul, represented by the Christ child and the bread, offered by Mary to the poor family. In presenting a visual metaphor that encourages the viewer to consider his spiritual life, this work also anticipates the symbolic religious meanings present in seventeenth-century Dutch vanitas still lifes. Aertsen's Meat Stall was clearly a famous work in its own day, judging from the number of contemporary versions that exist. This painting is probably the earliest version since it includes preparatory underdrawing that is visible in the pig's head and in the slab of fat hanging from the pole in the upper part of the composition. In both style and subject matter, the Meat Stall is the direct antecedent of the Museum's impressive Market Scene on a Quay by Frans Snyders."


4/10/2002:

"Pieter Aertsen (Netherlandish, active in Antwerp, 1508-1575) A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms, 1551 Oil on panel, 45 1/2 x 66 1/2 in. (115.5 x 169.0 cm.) Purchased with funds from Wendell and Linda Murphy and various donors, by exchange, 93.2 Pieter Aertsen was one of the first artists to paint "inverted still lifes," works in which the still-life elements are placed prominently in the foreground, while the narrative elements are relegated to the background. A Meat Stall is Aertsen's masterpiece in this genre. A feast for the mind as well as the eyes, this remarkably executed painting abounds with rich symbolism. The juxtaposition of the precisely rendered meats and other foods with the Holy Family in the background symbolically links food for the body with the spiritual "bread of life"- food for the soul, represented by the Christ child and the bread, offered by Mary to the poor family. In presenting a visual metaphor that encourages the viewer to consider his spiritual life, this work also anticipates the symbolic religious meanings present in seventeenth-century Dutch vanitas still lifes. Aertsen's Meat Stall was clearly a famous work in its own day, judging from the number of contemporary versions that exist. This painting is probably the earliest version since it includes preparatory underdrawing that is visible in the pig's head and in the slab of fat hanging from the pole in the upper part of the composition. In both style and subject matter, the Meat Stall is the direct antecedent of the Museum's impressive Market Scene on a Quay by Frans Snyders."
ART!
(20 Votes- 70% Art, 30% Porn)