Kitchen Scene with Christ at Emmaus

Beuckelaer painted a kitchen with numerous ingredients for a lavish meal: vegetables, fruits, nuts, poultry and a large cut of meat. The table linen and crockery are also displayed. In the background, Beuckelaer added the biblical story of Christ at Emmaus. He pushed this story into the background and took the secondary matter of the dinner preparations as the painting’s main subject.

Such kitchen scenes are regarded as the forerunners of the still-lifes of the 17th century, in which the narrative elements have vanished entirely.