This painting offers either a grotesque male portrait or, upside down, a hand lifting the lid of a cauldron with a sucking pig and other meat. The composition is arranged so that the man's eye also serves as the eye of a chicken.
It is possible that the figure of The Cook masks a real individual at the imperial court. It could be a humorous portrait of the highest court official who superintended the royal household, or it could be instead the portrait of a soldier.
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