Diego Velázquez, 'Christ in the House of Martha and Mary', probably 1618

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Diego Velázquez

Not on display

About the work

Overview

A maid pounds garlic in a mortar, and other ingredients lie scattered on the table: fish, eggs, a shrivelled red pepper and an earthenware jug probably containing olive oil. An older woman points towards her, as if giving her instructions or telling her off for working too hard, or she may be drawing our attention to the figures in the background.

The scene visible in the upper right is taken from the New Testament (Luke 10: 38–42). As Mary sits at Jesus’s feet, listening to him, her sister Martha complains that she should not be left to serve the food alone. Christ replies, ‘Mary has taken that good part, which shall not be taken away from her’. We view it through an opening, although it has also been read as a reflection in a mirror or a picture hung on the wall.

The figures in the foreground, dressed in contemporary costume, may be intended as a latter-day Martha and Mary.

In-depth

In the foreground Velázquez paints an everyday kitchen scene. A maid pounds garlic in a mortar, and other ingredients lie scattered on the table: eggs, a shrivelled red pepper, fish – a traditional symbol associated with Christ – and an earthenware jug probably containing olive oil. An older woman points towards the girl, as if giving her instructions or telling her off for working too hard, or she may be drawing our attention to the figures in the background. These two women are very naturalistic and may be based on real models.

The scene visible in the upper right is taken from the New Testament (Luke 10: 38–42). Mary sits at Christ’s feet, listening to him, and her sister Martha complains that she should not be left to serve the food alone. Christ replies: ‘Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful, and Mary has taken that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’ The story encourages a life of contemplation over action, conveyed through the different behaviours of Martha and Mary.

We view this biblical scene through an opening, although it has also been read as a reflection in a mirror or a picture on the wall. Its relationship to the figures in the foreground is also debated; dressed in contemporary costume, they may be intended as a latter-day Martha and Mary. The elderly woman’s pointing finger suggests that we should perhaps think about how these two scenes – the everyday and the biblical – are connected. Velázquez may have got the idea of combining a contemporary everyday scene with a Gospel story from sixteenth-century Flemish art, known to him through engravings.

Velázquez probably painted this work in 1618, shortly after leaving Francisco Pacheco’s studio and becoming an independent artist in Seville. We do not know who commissioned it. It may have been intended for a domestic setting, such as the home of the wealthy 3rd Duke of Alcalá, whose inventory of 1637 mentions a painting by Velázquez of ‘a kitchen where a woman is pounding garlic’ – though there is no reference to the religious subject in the background. It has even been suggested that the Hospital de Santa Marta in Seville, the principal function of which was to feed the poor, may have provided Velázquez with the inspiration for this painting, and may even have commissioned it.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Artist: Diego Velázquez
Artist dates: 1599 - 1660
Date made: probably 1618
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60 × 103.5 cm
Inscription summary: Dated
Acquisition credit: Bequeathed by Sir William H. Gregory, 1892
Inventory number: NG1375
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Sir William Henry Gregory
Frame: 17th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

In the collection of Lt.-Col. Packe, Twyford Hall, Norfolk; Lt.-Col. Packe (deceased) sale, London, 18 June, 1881 (lot 18; 21 gns.), bought by Sir William H. Gregory, by whom bequeathed to the National Gallery, 1892. Arts Council Spanish Paintings Exhibition, 1946 (no. 21) and 1947 (no. 28). Exhibited Madrid, Velázquez y lo velazqueño, 1961 (no. 35).

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised by Allan Braham, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School’, London 1988; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2018

Spanish Still Life

Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR)

20 February 2018 - 27 May 2018
2020

Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

The National Museum of Western Art

18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020

The National Museum of Art

3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
2021

Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

National Gallery of Australia

5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021

Bibliography

1893

London, National Gallery Archive, NG17/5 Annual Reports 1887-1897: The National Gallery Annual Report for The Year 1892, 1893
1946

L.-P. Fargue, Velázquez, Paris 1946
1952

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
1958

J.R. Buendía, 'La mujer de Velázquez', Goya, 23, 1958, pp. 281-4
1965

A. Braham, 'A Second Dated Bodegón by Velázquez', The Burlington Magazine, CVII/748, 1965, pp. 362-5
1970

N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
1972

B. Mestre Fiol, 'Los tres personajes invisibles de "Las Meninas', Mayurqa: Revista del Departament de Ciències Històriques i Teoria de les Arts, VIII, 1972, pp. 5-20
1973

B. Mestre Fiol, '"El espejo referencial" en la pintura de Velázquez (Jesús en casa de Marta y María)', Traza y Baza, 2, 1973, pp. 15-36
1983

M. Helston, Spanish and Later Italian Paintings, London 1983
1983

B.M. Fiol, 'Jesús en casa de Marta y María y el lenguaje de Velázquez', Boletín de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 57, 1983, pp. 155-209
1984

J.F. Moffitt, 'Terebat in Mortario": Symbolism in Velasquez's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary', Arte Cristiana, 700, 1984, pp. 13-24
1985

W.B. Jordan and P. Cherry, Spanish Still Life in the Golden Age, 1600-1650 (exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum, 11 May - 4 August 1985; Toledo Museum of Art, 8 September - 3 November 1985), Fort Worth 1985
1987

J. Brown and R.L. Kagan, 'The Duke of Alcalá: His Collection and Its Evolution', Art Bulletin, LXIX/2, 1987, pp. 231-55
1988

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Allan Braham, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1988
1990

J.F. Moffitt, 'Francisco Pacheco and Jerome Nadal: New Light on the Flemish Sources of the Spanish "Picture-within-the-Picture"', Art Bulletin, LXII/700, 1990, pp. 631-8
1990

A. Domínguez Ortiz, A.E.P. Sánchez and J. Gállego, Velázquez (exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, 23 January - 30 March 1990), Madrid 1990
1990

M.P. Lozano, 'Fuentes y significado del cuadro "Cristo en casa de Marta" de Diego Velázquez', Cuadernos de Arte e Iconografía, III/6, 1990, pp. 55-69
1991

M. Pérez Lozano, 'Velázquez en el entorno de Pacheco: Las orimeras obras', Ars longa, II, 1991, pp. 89-102
1994

E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
1995

W.B. Jordan and P. Cherry, Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 22 February - 21 May 1995), London 1995
1996

J. López-Rey, Velázquez: Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne 1996
1996

D. Davies, 'Velázquez's Bodegones', in Velázquez in Seville, Edinburgh 1996, pp. 50-65
1997

U. Nefzger, 'Wirklichkeit, Wahrheit und Würde bei Velazquez', Pantheon, LV, 1997, pp. 75-90
1999

J. Baticle et al., Velázquez, Dossier de l'art 63, Dijon 1999
1999

J. Drury, Painting the Word: Christian Pictures and Their Meanings, New Haven 1999
1999

M.F. Puerta Rosell, 'Piezas de plata en la pintura española de bodegón', Goya, 269, 1999, pp. 83-92
1999

A.J. Morales, Velázquez en Sevilla (exh. cat. Monasterio de la Cartuja Santa María de las Cuevas, Salas del Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, 1 October - 12 December 1999), Seville 1999
2000

F. Scheffler, Das spanische Stilleben des 17. Jahrhunderts: Theorie, Genese und Entfaltung einer neuen Bildgattung, Frankfurt am Main 2000
2000

M.C. Casal, 'The Old Woman in Velázquez's Kitchen Scene with Christ's Visit to Martha and Mary', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, LXIII, 2000, pp. 295-302
2000

T.L. Glenn, 'Velázquez's Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary: An Image Both "Reflected" and to ne Reflected upon', Gazette des beaux-arts, 136, 2000, pp. 21-30
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

K. Hellwig, 'Las firmas de Velázquez', Boletín del Museo del Prado, XIX/37, 2001, pp. 21-46
2001

M. Morán Turina, 'Velázquez, la pintura y el teatro del Siglo de Oro', Boletín del Museo del Prado, XIX/37, 2001, pp. 47-71
2001

X. Brooke and P. Cherry, Murillo: Scenes of Childhood (exh. cat. Dulwich Picture Gallery, 14 February - 13 May 2001; Alte Pinakothek, 23 May - 26 August 2001), London 2001
2002

A. Vergara, 'Velázquez and the North', in S.L. Stratton-Pruitt (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Velázquez, Cambridge 2002, pp. 48-67
2004

J. Boyd and P.F. Esler, Visuality and Biblical Text: Interpreting Velázquez's 'Christ with Martha and Mary' As a Test Case, Florence 2004
2004

A.J. Morales and C. Sánchez de las Heras (eds), Symposium Internacional Velázquez, Actas, 8-11 de noviembre, Sevilla, 1999, Seville 2004
2006

T.J. Tiffany, 'Velázquez's "Bodegones" and the Art of Emulation', Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte, XVIII, 2006, pp. 79-95
2006

B. Vischer, 'Cibus et potus: Velázquez' "Alte Köchin"', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, LXIX, 2006, pp. 305-41
2006

D. Carr (ed.), Velázquez (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 18 October 2006 - 21 January 2007), London 2006
2007

J. Portús, Velázquez's Fables: Mythology and Sacred History in the Golden Age (exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, 20 November 2007 - 24 February 2008), Madrid 2007
2008

F. Checa, Velázquez: The Complete Paintings, Antwerp 2008
2008

T.J. Tiffany, 'Light, Darkness, and African Salvation: Velázquez's "Supper at Emaus"', Art History, III/1, 2008, pp. 33-56
2008

S. Schroth and R. Baer, El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III (exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, 20 April - 27 July 2008; Nasher Museum of Art, 21 August - 9 November 2008), Boston 2008

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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