The Well-stocked Kitchen, with Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary in the Background

The date on this kitchen, high on the red beam at the upper right, is 1566. In August of that year, crowds went through the churches of Antwerp, Beuckelaer's city, smashing statues and altarpieces in what became known as the Iconoclastic Fury. In this panel the one religious scene sits far back, beyond a colonnade. It is Christ in the house of the sisters Martha and Mary. In the Gospel of Luke, Martha is busy serving while Mary sits and listens, and Christ tells Martha that her sister has chosen the better part. The front of the picture belongs entirely to Martha's world. One maid plucks a chicken, another pushes a bird onto a spit, and the rest is food, game birds hanging from hooks, a hare, a haunch of meat, artichokes, grapes. The museum reads the contrast as a warning not to give in to earthly temptation.