Butcher's Shop
Original title: Butcher's Shop
Date: 1583
Art form: Painting
Dimensions: 185 X 266cm. (72.83 X 104.72 in.)
The Butcher's Shop, a painting by Carracci, is categorized as a genre painting that offers a glimpse into the everyday life of Italians during the late 1500s. The artwork showcases butchers preparing meat for sale, with the central figure in the foreground preparing a lamb for slaughter. Meanwhile, his assistants are hooking up carcasses for display. In a humorous touch, a customer wearing an oversized feather hat in the left corner is shown fumbling for money to pay for his purchase. Carracci's uncle was a butcher, and some historians have suggested that family members may have been represented in the painting.
During the late-sixteenth century in Bologna, artisans and shopkeepers occupied the lower rungs of society and were vulnerable to economic instability and a weakened guild system. Carracci's painting reflects his commitment to "painting from real life," with broken brushwork adding authenticity to the humble butchers depicted as masters of their trade. The inclusion of the humorous caricature of the paying customer adds a light-hearted touch to the artwork.
