Focus on Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (Velázquez) and explore the Flemish models.
The composition shows the influence of Flemish art from the previous century when Pieter Aertsen, followed by his nephew Joachim Beuckelaer, developed a type of large painting which combines a small New Testament scene in the background with a contemporary kitchen scene with sumptuous still life painting of foodstuffs.  Several examples use Christ, Martha and Mary as the background scene, including The Four Elements: Fire, by Beuckelaer (1570), also in the National Gallery.   There are two Aertsens with the same combination in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna a still life kitchen scene with the Martha and Mary scene again shown through a doorway, which is compared to the Velázquez by MacLaren (illustrated).  Another Beuckelaer painting (illustrated) in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, shows in the foreground a kitchen scene with still live meat and maids, and through a passage the scene with Christ and the sisters in near-grisaille.  Martha is presumably the figure nearest the viewer who seems to be on her way to the kitchen.  There is a third Beuckelaer in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.  It is very likely that Velázquez had seen engravings of these or similar works.
still life Mary Rotterdam Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Kunsthistorisches Museum Christ Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium engraving Vienna Pieter Aertsen Rijksmuseum National Gallery Joachim Beuckelaer grisaille Martha