A wealthy couple, with their maid, visit a peasant farm in this seventeenth century Flemish painting. Everyday activities are taking place in the main room – eating, churning butter, caring for children. In this pre-industrial home, household items are stored around the edges of the room in a cupboard, barrels and baskets. A staircase in the rear goes to an upper chamber or loft. The food on the table is served in bowls. There is only one spoon on the table and a man is eating directly from the bowl. Even though chimneys providing smoke ventilation were used in the seventeenth century, this painting depicts a hearth in the center of the room with food cooking in a large pot hanging from a hook.
Painting, The Visit to the Farm, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, 1622. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
This image is interesting to use in a middle or advanced elementary social studies class. The house appears to be very busy and over-populated which is much different than that of a modern house. This would be a great way for modern children to grasp and visualize an understanding of what households used to be like. The description of the man and spoon are an interesting addition as well!
This historical image would be great in a lesson on how the Industrial Revolution affected the household. Students could this image to the modern technology in their own homes.