Brunswick Monogrammist, circa 1540, Kitchen Scene with Working Women and Drunken Men, Brunswick Monogrammist, circa 1540, Kitchen Scene with Working Women and Drunken Men

54 × 64 cm

The women are engaged in housework in the kitchen; an elderly woman by the fireplace, a young woman in the foreground on the left carrying a basket of cabbage, and men drinking beer from cups. The seated man on the right bends backwards, giving rise to the fear of losing his balance. A man on the left, drunk, embraces a young woman, laughing at the viewer and holding a jug to show that it is already empty. Humorous criticism of drunkenness and lasciviousness was a major theme in Dutch genre painting, with artists depicting the sins with apparent delight.
The work belongs to the early genre of Dutch painting, and according to the clay jug in the foreground, it was probably created between the years 1550-1560.
Brunswick Monogrammist, kolem 1540
Oil on wood
Size 54 × 64 cm