Joachim Bueckelaer

Born in Antwerp, at first Joachim Bueckelaer (1533-1575) worked for his uncle Pieter Aertsen. It was at the latter’s workshop that he learned to paint market scenes and kitchen tableaux combined with biblical themes. In 1560, he set up as an independent painter in his hometown. Beuckelaer also painted staffage in work by other painters, inserting figures and other details in paintings by artists such as Anthonis Mor. Beuckelaer was poorly paid during his lifetime: the biographer Karel van Mander reports that Beuckelaer's paintings fetched low prices, yet after his death his works increased in value twelvefold.