ADRIAEN BOOGAERT (1587-1631) Lot n° 13

(to be attributed to) Kitchen piece with the Supper at Emmaus, c. 1620. Oil on canvas. 127 x 168 cm In 2012, Fred G. Meijer attributed this canvas to the painter Adriaen Boogaert. As such, it was also included in the database of RKDimages no. 243320. However, the known oeuvre of Adriaen Boogaert is very rare. A signed bird still life was sold at Christie's in 1998 (London, 16.12.1998, lot 133) which may serve as a point of reference for the attribution of this colorful kitchen piece. Adriaen Boogaert was born in Norway and probably moved with his father to the Netherlands in 1593 where he lived in Amsterdam. When his wife died in 1628, it appears that he was already abroad. Thus, according to Horst Gerson, he was in the service of the Elector of Mainz.¹ Among other things, in 1619-22 he provided the side panels of the high altar of the Cathedral of Münster with scenes from the life of the Apostle Paul (cf. RKDimages no. 284895). Boogaert combines the sumptuous kitchen scene of a young maid threading poultry on a spit in front of a table filled with beef, lobster and several vegetables with the Emmaus meal in a contrasting, extremely austere background. This remarkably discreet introduction of a Biblical motif, was the perfect instrument to mirror the vice of worldly pleasures with a Christian moralizing perspective. Both the signed bird still life, and the Sint Paul side panels in Münster, suggest that Boogaert was at home in both genres: still life and the largest religious scenes. In this painting, he combines the two in a strikingly modern manner. 1. Horst Gerson, 'Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam, 1983, p. p. 267, 475.