Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Have you yet discovered the man who impersonates carnival? You can find him in the lower part of the painting. He is a bit fat, has got on red trousers and is riding on a barrel. In one hand he carries a lance with a pig's head on it. You can see that he likes to eat and to drink.
Opposite to him Lent is sitting, a rather thinnish monk with sandals on.

Imagine people of the 16th century looking at this painting. There must have been some who would be on the side of carnival and laugh about the monk. But there must have been others who were not very happy with the way a very important religious tradition like lent is being portrayed here.

This painting belongs to Bruegel's most famous ones. Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted it in 1565.

It is an excellent example of landscape painting which emerged during the Flemish and Dutch Renaissance.

Bruegel the Elder created this painting in 1567. It is typical for his paintings of peasant life.

Bride and groom are almost hidden among all the people (the bride is the one sitting under the greenish-blue canopy, the groom might be the man in black sitting at the right side of the painting). There is bread, porridge and soup to eat - nothing special like meat.