"The Kitchen Maid"

Preoccupied by her task of preparing a feast, the maid here seems unaware of the biblical scene taking place behind her: Christ visiting the house of Martha and Mary. As recounted in the Gospel of Luke (10:38–42), Mary sits down to listen to Christ preach, leaving her sister Martha to prepare the meal; when Martha complains, he replies that Mary has made the better choice. This moralizing lesson of elevating the spiritual, contemplative life over worldly distractions tempers the almost carnal sensuousness of the foreground scene, where Wtewael’s extraordinary talent for depicting objects realistically is on display.

Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael, "The Kitchen Maid," c. 1620-1625, oil on canvas, Collection Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Purchase with support from the Rembrandt Society, 1999 Centraal Museum, Utrecht / Ernst Moritz