03 — ARTWORK
The Oyster-eater
- MEDIUM
- Oil on panel, 21 x 15 cm
- TYPE
- Genre
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 1000 × 1330 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Any seventeenth-century viewer would have easily recognized what readily escapes viewers today: the oysters are laden with carnal overtones. According to the ancient mythographers, Aphrodite (known to the Romans as Venus), was conceived in an oyster shell which subsequently transported her to the island of Cyprus. To ancient and early modern minds, Aphrodite symbolized love, sex, and fertility; such concepts were also linked, by association, to oysters.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rbf0ea7e3bc9f68,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {The Oyster-eater by STEEN, Jan},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/steen-jan-rb9ab2005aa3a59/the-oyster-eater-rbf0ea7e3bc9f68},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
