A rare and huge Aelmis Rotterdam Dutch blue and white rectangular "kitchen piece" tilepicture

CIRCA 1760, DE BLOMPOT MANUFACTORY

Details

A rare and huge Aelmis Rotterdam Dutch blue and white rectangular "kitchen piece" tilepicture
Circa 1760, De Blompot manufactory
(Groot keukenstuk) Depicting Christ in the house of Martha and Mary, the seated Christ with his head in a halo, with the seated Mary listening to him, Martha holding fowl above a table overflowing with various food, the side of the table with an inscription in Greek: Lord, dost Thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore to help me (Lucas 10:40), further with: a huge vegetable filled basket; a Mannerist jug in the auricular Van Vianen style on the foreground; with a pair of large barrels, the right one with a tom cat peeping at three fish, the left one with a pumpkin and an elaborate Netherlands period interior to the background, containing e.g. a four-poster bed, windows containing arched glass panels, a pillored fire-place, a family scene, a print with a double terrestrial globe, four landscape paintings, etc., Christ holding his right arm on a table set with a Raeren stoneware jug and a tiny lion at his feet, to the left with a large open gate underneath two tablets inscribed in Hebrew and describing some of the Ten Commandments, e.g. I am your Lord and took you out of Egypt, upon a chequered floor (various damages)
12x14 tiles, 150x175cm.

Provenance

An Belgian aristocratic family

Lot Essay

Christ in the house of Martha and Mary (Lucas 10:38-42), Martha the busy housewife and the active type chided her contemplative sister for sitting, apparently idly at Christ's feet, listening to his words. But he told her that the spiritual Mary was playing a necessary, indeed the much better part. Martha is the rotund materialistic housewife surrounded by her domestic accoutrements.

The picture is after a composition by J. Goeimar and engraved by B.A. Bolswert (Hollstein III, p. 62, no. 8 with ill.). We would like to thank Mrs. G.B. Krebber for her help in identifying the origins of this tilepicture.

c.f. J. Stodel, Blue Delftware brochure 1680-1720, p. 38 for a discussion about the impressive productions of the Aelmis Rotterdam manufactory
See illustration

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