| A Slaughtered Ox | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Rembrandt  |
| Year | 1655 |
| Dimensions | 94 cm (37 in) × 69 cm (27 in) |
| Location | Room 844 |
| Collection | Department of Paintings of the Louvre |
| Identifiers | Joconde work ID: 000PE008568 RKDimages ID: 232216 |
Slaughtered Ox, also known asFlayed Ox,Side of Beef, orCarcass of Beef, is a 1655 oil onbeech panelstill life painting byRembrandt. It has been in the collection of theLouvre in Paris since 1857. A similar painting is inKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, possibly not created by Rembrandt himself but probably by one of his pupils, perhapsCarel Fabritius.[1] Other similar paintings by Rembrandt or more likely his circle are held by museums in Budapest and Philadelphia.
The work follows in a tradition of artworks showing butchery, for examplePieter Aertsen'sA Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms (1551) andAnnibale Carracci'sButcher's Shop (c. 1583), and perhaps more specificallyJoachim Beuckelaer'sSlaughtered Pig (1563). Rembrandt made a drawing of a similar scene c. 1635. Another pre-1655 painting of a slaughtered ox (the example in Edinburgh, now attributed to Rembrandt's circle but formerly to Rembrandt) was perhaps inspired by a lost earlier work by Rembrandt himself. In northern Europe, November was traditionally the time for slaughtering livestock, before winter made feed difficult to find.
The painting measures 95.5 by 68.8 centimetres (37.6 in × 27.1 in), and is signed and dated "Rembrandt f. 1655". It shows the butchered carcass of a bull or an ox, hanging in a wooden building, possibly a stable or lean-to shed. The carcass is suspended by its two rear legs, which are tied by ropes to a wooden crossbeam. The animal has been decapitated and flayed of skin and hair, the chest cavity has been stretched open and the internal organs removed, revealing a mass of flesh, fat, connective tissue, joints, bones, and ribs. The carcass is carefully coloured, and given texture byimpasto. In the background, a woman appears behind a half-open door, lifting the painting fromstill life into agenre painting, a scene of everyday life. It is sometimes considered avanitas ormemento mori; some commentators make references to the killing of the fatted calf in the biblical story of theProdigal Son, others directly to theCrucifixion of Jesus.
The painting was possibly owned by Christoffel Hirschvogel in 1661. It was viewed byJoshua Reynolds in the collection ofPieter Locquet in Amsterdam in 1781, and later owned byLouis Viardot, who sold it to theLouvre in 1857 for 5,000 francs.
The work's muscular depiction inspiredHonoré Daumier,Eugène Delacroix, a series of works byChaïm Soutine, andFrancis Bacon. Most particularly, Bacon'sFigure with Meat depictsPope Innocent X, as painted byVelazquez, accompanied by ghostly echoes of the carcass from Rembrandt's painting.
