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tamaranthDrunkenness, underage drinking, fornicating chickens and gambling:
Lecture discussing this painting:
... in which the curator helpfully pointed out just how much lewdness and debauchery is going on, from rutting chickens (lower right) to monks being given directions to pub (centre), alongside the actual religious festival (procession on right; a couple of bellringers in the church, plus someone going to confession): this was painted in a time of religious unrest and turmoil (the population of Antwerp halved in the first 50 years of Brueghel's life, partly due to anti-Protestant 'cleansing') so it's hardly surprising that so few of the ~263 people in this picture are doing anything religious.
Look at perspective, though: we are seeing not just the entire village but the entire day, events compressed into a single 'scene' that incorporates the early part of the festival (procession) and the later parts (theatre, dancing, gambling, drunkenness, underage drinking, public urination, chickens).
It's not intended to make the viewer feel moral disgust: OK, there's lewdness and debauchery (and a bloke "puking his guts up on the ground", I quote, just by the fornicating chickens), but they are having fun, not bound to some hellish display.
Apparently there are several different renditions of this painting, in some of which some details are clearer. (One could be forgiven for thinking that the bloke taking a piss is 'doing something else', said curator.)
Interesting lecture, free and 45 mins at lunchtime: pointed out elements I'd never have noticed and put the whole thing in context.
Fitzwilliam catalogue page here
Lecture discussing this painting:
... in which the curator helpfully pointed out just how much lewdness and debauchery is going on, from rutting chickens (lower right) to monks being given directions to pub (centre), alongside the actual religious festival (procession on right; a couple of bellringers in the church, plus someone going to confession): this was painted in a time of religious unrest and turmoil (the population of Antwerp halved in the first 50 years of Brueghel's life, partly due to anti-Protestant 'cleansing') so it's hardly surprising that so few of the ~263 people in this picture are doing anything religious.
Look at perspective, though: we are seeing not just the entire village but the entire day, events compressed into a single 'scene' that incorporates the early part of the festival (procession) and the later parts (theatre, dancing, gambling, drunkenness, underage drinking, public urination, chickens).
It's not intended to make the viewer feel moral disgust: OK, there's lewdness and debauchery (and a bloke "puking his guts up on the ground", I quote, just by the fornicating chickens), but they are having fun, not bound to some hellish display.
Apparently there are several different renditions of this painting, in some of which some details are clearer. (One could be forgiven for thinking that the bloke taking a piss is 'doing something else', said curator.)
Interesting lecture, free and 45 mins at lunchtime: pointed out elements I'd never have noticed and put the whole thing in context.
Fitzwilliam catalogue page here
