Diego Velázquez, An Old Woman Cooking Eggs. 1618, Scottish National Gallery. Edinburg. © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland
A Masterpiece in Texture and Culinary History
Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) was in his late teens when he painted the masterpiece, “An Old Woman Cooking Eggs,” now on view at the Frick Collection, together with other paintings on loan from the Scottish National Gallery. Art lovers and culinary historians can benefit from multiple viewings of this stunning achievement.
The painting depicts an old woman doing precisely what the title claims while a young boy stands by holding a flask in his left hand and cradling a rope-wrapped melon in the crook of his right arm. It is an example of the bodegón, paintings of humble kitchen and tavern life, at which Velázquez and his contemporaries excelled during the Spanish Golden Age.