The Cook Pieter Aertsen 1559

The Cook
Pieter Aertsen 1559
From the collection of
Musei di Strada Nuova
Details
Title: The Cook
Creator: Pieter Aertsen
Date Created: 1559
Physical Dimensions: w850 x h1710 cm (without frame)
Type: painting
Rights: Comune di Genova, Comune di Genova

Musei di Strada Nuova
Genova, Italy

Since 2004, Palazzo Rosso, Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Tursi – the three historical palaces owned by the Municipality and located in the 16th-century Strada Nuova (lit., “New Street”) – make up all together a single exhibition route dedicated to ancient art, the Strada Nuova Museums: Palazzo Rosso, the historic palace of the Brignole-Sale family, and Palazzo Bianco, a prestigious art gallery, were opened for public touring in the late 19th century; Palazzo Tursi houses the City Council, but, by the Council’s will, it is also used as a venue for cultural events, exhibitions and as the City’s boardroom. The unity of the three palaces as an uninterrupted touring route, in which each building maintains its own specific features related to its history and collections, has thus transformed the 16th-century Strada Nuova (Via Garibaldi) into an authentic “museum-street”, a masterpiece of Genoese architectural and housing culture and the centre of a cultural institution that is unique for its dimensions, characteristics, quality and prestige.The Strada Nuova Museums also offer visitors cafeteria and bookshop services, and, in the Palazzo Rosso Auditorium, debates, conventions and temporary exhibitions can be organised.

The entire road plan of Strada Nuova, a residential area of Genoese aristocracy, is unique in the world for its architectural and urban-planning quality. Its outstanding monumental appearance has always amazed Italian and foreign visitors alike; to painter Peter Paul Rubens, its buildings even became a model of housing civilisation to be promoted among his contemporaries. Thanks to the spectacular lobbies, frescoed halls, gardens, monumental nymphaea and art collections, its palaces have been granted the status of “World Heritage Site” by UNESCO.

Pieter Aertsen
1508 - 1575

Pieter Aertsen, called Lange Pier because of his height, was a Dutch painter in the style of Northern Mannerism, who invented the monumental genre scene combining still life and genre painting, and very often also including a biblical scene in the background. He was born and died in Amsterdam, in his lifetime a relatively minor city, and painted there but mainly in Antwerp, then the centre of artistic life in the Netherlands. His genre scenes were influential on later Flemish Baroque painting, and also in Italy, and his peasant scenes preceded by a few years the much better-known paintings produced in Antwerp by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
http://hisour.com/art-medium/paintings/the-cook-pieter-aertsen-1559/