3-002-418 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Venetian Kitchen Interior, c1600. De Vries was one of many Netherlandish artists who left his war-torn homeland to come to Venice, where he painted Netherlandish subjects in a Venetian style. As in the Netherlandish tradition, the kitchen of this wealthy home is full of everyday details, such as meat hung to dry. The cook reaches for the roosters offered by the tradesman. In Dutch, plays on the word for "bird" can refer to sexual intercourse. In the lusty manner of Netherlandish paintings and popular prints of market folk, the man is propositioning the cook in front of her mistress, who does not understand peasant "body language." The lady's dress and platform shoes identify her and the setting as Venetian, and De Vries has adopted the broad brush strokes of his Venetian colleagues.