Pieter van der Heyden (ca. 1530-1572/92), after Pieter I Brueghel (the elder): The Thin Kitchen, c.1563
Engraving, 22,3 x 29,4 cm
Museum Plantin-Moretus/Print room

The Thin Kitchen is a counterpart to the fat kitchen. It was a very popular scene, here engraved by Pieter van der Heyden, after a drawing by Pieter I Brueghel .The fat man seems to have stumbled into the thin kitchen by accident and is eager to flee from its gaunt inhabitants. The poor fare seems to be the result of poverty in juxtaposition of the fat man, who represents the successful people who bought such prints to emphasize their status.