Adriaen van Ostade’s composition corresponds to the so-called peasant interiors, one of the new pictorial genres that emerged and developed in Flanders and Holland at the beginning of the 17th century. The consolidation of this genre was supported by the satirical and moralising literature of the previous two centuries, which had its roots in the peasant couplets of the 14th century composed by knights during peasant fights. The term kerel, used to designate free peasants, came to be used to describe the gañán (uncouth, coarse and rough peasant whose behaviour was dominated by instincts and passions, in contrast to the behaviour of the bourgeois class). The scene takes place inside a village kitchen where, in the foreground, two men seated on the floor, one facing the front and the other with his back to the viewer, try to feed a dog with a spoon while two others look on animatedly.
Collection: Images
Project: 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity., 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe.
Chronology: XVII
Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University
Resource type: Image
Format: Oil on panel (23 x 29 cm)
Source: Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Language: Spanish
Date: ca. 1632
Owner: Álvaro Romero González (Modernalia)
Identifier: P002122
Copyright: Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Abstract: Interior of a village kitchen in 17th century Europe depicted by Ostade
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