Butcher Shop

In the old Dutch calendar November was called slaughter month. Before winter, households killed a fattened ox or pig and salted the meat to last until spring, and using every part of the animal counted as good housekeeping.

Teniers painted this panel in Antwerp in 1642, and the museum thinks it is probably his earliest picture of a slaughtered animal. He lays out the whole job. The head and hide lie at the lower left, the flayed carcass hangs in the middle, thickly painted, and the lungs and liver wait on the chopping block. Whether this is a butcher's shop or a household kitchen is not clear, and the museum leaves the question open. A sieve hangs on the wall at the left. It was the traditional attribute of Wisdom in allegory, and it may be a quiet word of approval for the woman at work.

The first owner on record was Louis de Moni, a painter in Leiden, and it appeared at the sale of his collection in 1772.