Cooks and Kitchens in Medieval and Renaissance Art

The focus of this linkspage is on the clothing worn by kitchen staff, but may eventually expand to discussion of the kitchens and kitchen equipment in general.

See also A Feast for the Eyes: Kitchens, Cooking, and Equipment and A Study of Cooking Tasks, Methods, and Equipment in the Renaissance Kitchen.

• A cook and a butcher, Reiner Musterbuch (ÖNB 507, fol. 2v), c. 1200-1220
• The Maciejowski Bible, c. 1250: Samuel in the temple
• Cooking poultry on a spit (Universitätsbibliothek Graz 32, fol. 3r), c. 1300-1350
• Kitchen scene, roasting meats on a spit (fol. 206v), and another kitchen scene (fol. 207) in The Luttrell Psalter (British Library MS. ADD. 42130), c. 1325-1335
• Roasting the Paschal lamb on a spit, Speculum Humanae Salvationis (ÖNB 2612, fol. 19r), c. 1330-1340
• The Romance of Alexander (Bodl. 264), 1338-1344: fols. 83r, 83v, 170v, and 204r
• Eel must be cooked for a long time, Concordantiae caritatis (Stiftsbibliothek Lilienfeld 151, fol. 169v), c. 1349-1351

A COOK they hadde with hem for the nones To boille the chiknes with the marybones, And poudre-marchant tart, and galyngale. Wel koude he knowe a draughte of London ale. He koude rooste, and sethe, and broille, and frye, Maken mortreux, and wel bake a pye. But greet harm was it, as it thoughte me, That on his shyne a mormal hadde he. For blankmanger, that made he with the beste. The Cook in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales

• The Cook in the Ellesmere manuscript of The Canterbury Tales (Huntington Library MS EL 26 C9), c. 1410
• Syrus enters a kitchen in the Comédies de Térence (BNF Latin MS 7907 A, fol. 83), beginning of the 15th century
• A separate kitchen in Térence des ducs (BNF Arsenal MS 664, fol. 4v), beginning of the 15th century
• Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century (BNF Nouvelle acquisition latine 1673, fols. 35, 50, 50v, 58v, 59, 59v, 74v)
• Tacuinum Sanitatis, (BNF Latin 9333), 15th century: Several illustrations of the making of foodstuffs (including bread-dough, white cheese, black bread, roast meat, livers, tripe, etc.) seem to take place in abbreviated kitchens.
• Kitchen scene in The Decameron (BNF Arsenal MS 5070), 1432
• A spacious kitchen in Bartholomaeus Anglicus' De proprietatibus rerum (BNF Fr. 22532, fol. 317v), 15th century
• A man cooks a sauce in Bartholomaeus Anglicus' On the properties of things (BNF Fr. 9140, fol. 361v) 15th century
• Detail from The Birth of Mary, 1489
• Rural scene by Marten van Cleve, 1527
• A camp kitchen (and another?) from The camp of Charles V at Lauingen in the year 1546 by Matthias Gerung, 1551
• Cook in front of the stove by Pieter Aertsen, 1559
• Christ in the House of Martha and Mary by Joachim Beuckelaer, 1565
• The cook, Eigentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auf Erden, 1568