The Country Markeet

Unlike many of Beuckelaer’s market scenes, this painting includes neither an impressive cityscape nor a biblical episode. The subject is purely vernacular. The men are folkloric, whereas the women are pretty, dignified, and respectfully dressed. The man in front props his foot on a basket and touches the breast of the woman beside him. He glances at us as if he knows he is being judged.

Art historians debate whether Beuckelaer’s paintings of overflowing markets are moralizing commentaries on temptation and excess—or elaborate salacious jokes. Their subject matter is often ambiguous, which is typical of Northern European art. The artist produced seven versions of this composition, including an especially close variation executed in 1567, now in Antwerp.