Meat-Day Fare with Kitchen Utensils

In Chardin's Paris the church calendar decided what went into the pot. Fridays, the 40 days of Lent and other fasts were lean days, jours maigres, when meat was forbidden, and the rest of the year was made of fat days, jours gras. Chardin painted both kinds of meal as a pair, and this is the meat day. A raw cut of meat hangs from a hook, a copper pot lies tipped on its side with a skimmer across it, and a loaf, a green-glazed jug and dark bottles stand along the stone ledge.

He painted the pair small and on copper, a support he rarely used, and signed and dated this one at the lower right, Chardin 1731. Its partner, the lean-day meal, is also in the Louvre, and the museum bought the two together in 1852.