拍品专文
A preliminary study, in the same sense and incised, is in the Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts, Brussels (Schnackenburg, op.cit., no. 52). A painted nightpiece with a very comparable subject, signed and dated 1637, is in the Städelsches Institut, Frankfurt (H. Weizsäcker, Catalog der Gemälde-Gallerie..., Frankfurt, 1900, p. 251, no. 205B. Another comparable picture is in the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf, inv. no. 207.
As Slatkes (Pelletier a.o., op.cit., p. 205) has pointed out, 'scenes depicting the activities attendant to the slaughtering of a pig were often part of series depicting the seasons or the months and stood for the month of November, called in the Netherlands, Slachtmaand (slaughtering month)'. Ostade may have known Jan van de Velde's engraving of November (Hollstein 44) for a series of months of the year, one of which is dated 1618, also depicting the slaughtering of a pig. Dusart later used the same subject for his mezzotint of November as part of his series of the months (Hollstein 30). Schnackenburg dates this plate to circa 1647-52, Slatkes dates it to circa 1652.
As Slatkes (Pelletier a.o., op.cit., p. 205) has pointed out, 'scenes depicting the activities attendant to the slaughtering of a pig were often part of series depicting the seasons or the months and stood for the month of November, called in the Netherlands, Slachtmaand (slaughtering month)'. Ostade may have known Jan van de Velde's engraving of November (Hollstein 44) for a series of months of the year, one of which is dated 1618, also depicting the slaughtering of a pig. Dusart later used the same subject for his mezzotint of November as part of his series of the months (Hollstein 30). Schnackenburg dates this plate to circa 1647-52, Slatkes dates it to circa 1652.