Lot Essay
The present lot is based on the painting by Pieter Brueghel I, signed and dated 1559, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Marlier listed three versions of this composition only one -in a Belgian private collection- of which he accepted as the work of Pieter Brueghel II (his fig. 50). On the basis of old photographs he doubted Brueghel's authorship of the present lot and of the picture formerly in the Cracow museum. A fourth version subsequently has come to light and is the work of Pieter Brueghel II. It was sold at Christie's New York, 31 May 1989, lot 88 for $ 2.700.000). As is the case with the succeeding lot, the evident quality of execution merits at the least an attribution to Pieter Brueghel II.
All four copies differ. The present lot comes closest to that in a private collection, Belgium, except for the ommission of the male corpse and the blanket in the lower right hand corner. In the original the corpse has been painted over, probably following the wish of a later owner, as were the naked man to the far right, the woman in the cart towards the right of the well and the children sleeping in front of the church. In the version sold at New York the name of the inn has been changed and there are two children instead of one in the basket on the back of the woman centre right; also the woman in the cart is in a different position.
The original is said to have belonged to Emperor Rudolph II (died 1612). It is uncertain whether the copies were made from the prototype or that one copy was later used as a prototype.
The subject was most recently discussed by Ethan Matt Kaveler in the 1989 New York catalogue:
"In the foreground, a portly Carnival carries a roasting spit for a lance, as he rides a beer keg into battle. A kitchen pot doubles as a stirrup. Carnival as the season of sensual indulgence, of meat, drink and fine food - a period of enjoyment before the onset of Lenten fasting and penitence. Carnival's residence is the kitchen and the tavern, and with its origins in pre-Christian agriculture cults, embodied a defiance of winter cold and a celebration of growth in the spring.
Lent meets her adversary, Carnival, on Shrove Tuesday, and triumphs, ushering in her own reign of penitence and asceticism beginning on Ash Wednesday. Her home is the church. Lent's personification in Brueghel's painting is dressed as a nun brandishing a baker's peel. The beehive she wears (symbol of the Catholic Church) is decorated with a pretzel, a typical plain Lenten food. She offers two meager herring, also traditional Lenten fare. Inexpensive fish was a staple food at this season, when the eating of meat and other delicacies was forbidden.
The well in the center divides the painting along culinary lines: the pig of Carnival emerges on the left, while Lenten fish are sold at the right. Among Carnival's followers, 'Rough Music' is played on a kitchen grill and a rommelpot, a jug beaten with a spoon and covered by leather to amplify the sound. Disguises of several Carnival Mummers are also taken from the kitchen: a necklace of egges, and a kettle-helmet. Nearby a woman bakes waffles over a wood fire. Waffles were Carnival specialities, sweet crisp cakes rich in butter. They were a modest luxury, forbidden after Lent had begun.
In the lower left corner, gamblers play at dice, dressed in disguise according to Carnival fashion. The man hooded in waffles is probably a waffle baker. At this time bakers would take to the street, wagering their waffles against all corners. His opponent in black is dressed as one of the common 'Carnival devils'. These disguises, however, offered perfect cover to thieves and soon earned the disapproval of civic authorities. The child at the lower left wears a paper crown as his Carnival costume. These popular woodcuts, made to celebrate the Epiphany ('Three Kings Night') were inexpensive and widely circulated. Only a few have survived.
In the tavern at the left customers observe a performance of 'The Dirty Bride', a farce mocking the love of an unappealing rustic couple. In front of the second inn beyond, actors perform one of the popular plays about wild men, perhaps the well-known 'Orson and Valentine'. On a barrel around the corner, a man drinks heartily to the delight of surrounding children, who cry 'Le roi boit!'. The man emerging from the second-story window above empties a bucket of slops on top of him. Nearer the foreground cripples wearing fox-tails as marks of their presumed deceitfulness perform their grotesque dance for alms during the Carnival time.
In the centre of the painting a fool crosses the city square carrying a torch lit in daylight. In Brueghel's time, this long-established practice symbolized the folly of Carnival: 'Bringing daylight out into the sun', for example was a proverb illustrated by both Brueghel the Younger and his father. Originally, such fire symbolism related to fertility rituals, to the awakening of the fields and the renewal of spring.
On the Lenten side to the right, a sermon has ended in the church, and the congregation departs. Several devout women, probably Beguines, emerge through the front portal. They have attended a Lenten service (the statues are covered within the church), but lack the ashen crosses on their foreheads, found in Brueghel the Elder's paintings, which identify the day as Ash Wednesday. From the north portal a second audience departs. They have celebrated Palm Sunday and hold in commemoration small branches, palm being hard to obtain in the Netherlands. Theirs is a modest congregation, for several of them carry their own chairs. Sickness and death are ever-present, invoking Lenten charity. Cripples and orphans are given alms, as is a mother whose husband's corpse [not visible in the present lot] occupies the lower right corner of the painting"
See colour illustration
Marlier listed three versions of this composition only one -in a Belgian private collection- of which he accepted as the work of Pieter Brueghel II (his fig. 50). On the basis of old photographs he doubted Brueghel's authorship of the present lot and of the picture formerly in the Cracow museum. A fourth version subsequently has come to light and is the work of Pieter Brueghel II. It was sold at Christie's New York, 31 May 1989, lot 88 for $ 2.700.000). As is the case with the succeeding lot, the evident quality of execution merits at the least an attribution to Pieter Brueghel II.
All four copies differ. The present lot comes closest to that in a private collection, Belgium, except for the ommission of the male corpse and the blanket in the lower right hand corner. In the original the corpse has been painted over, probably following the wish of a later owner, as were the naked man to the far right, the woman in the cart towards the right of the well and the children sleeping in front of the church. In the version sold at New York the name of the inn has been changed and there are two children instead of one in the basket on the back of the woman centre right; also the woman in the cart is in a different position.
The original is said to have belonged to Emperor Rudolph II (died 1612). It is uncertain whether the copies were made from the prototype or that one copy was later used as a prototype.
The subject was most recently discussed by Ethan Matt Kaveler in the 1989 New York catalogue:
"In the foreground, a portly Carnival carries a roasting spit for a lance, as he rides a beer keg into battle. A kitchen pot doubles as a stirrup. Carnival as the season of sensual indulgence, of meat, drink and fine food - a period of enjoyment before the onset of Lenten fasting and penitence. Carnival's residence is the kitchen and the tavern, and with its origins in pre-Christian agriculture cults, embodied a defiance of winter cold and a celebration of growth in the spring.
Lent meets her adversary, Carnival, on Shrove Tuesday, and triumphs, ushering in her own reign of penitence and asceticism beginning on Ash Wednesday. Her home is the church. Lent's personification in Brueghel's painting is dressed as a nun brandishing a baker's peel. The beehive she wears (symbol of the Catholic Church) is decorated with a pretzel, a typical plain Lenten food. She offers two meager herring, also traditional Lenten fare. Inexpensive fish was a staple food at this season, when the eating of meat and other delicacies was forbidden.
The well in the center divides the painting along culinary lines: the pig of Carnival emerges on the left, while Lenten fish are sold at the right. Among Carnival's followers, 'Rough Music' is played on a kitchen grill and a rommelpot, a jug beaten with a spoon and covered by leather to amplify the sound. Disguises of several Carnival Mummers are also taken from the kitchen: a necklace of egges, and a kettle-helmet. Nearby a woman bakes waffles over a wood fire. Waffles were Carnival specialities, sweet crisp cakes rich in butter. They were a modest luxury, forbidden after Lent had begun.
In the lower left corner, gamblers play at dice, dressed in disguise according to Carnival fashion. The man hooded in waffles is probably a waffle baker. At this time bakers would take to the street, wagering their waffles against all corners. His opponent in black is dressed as one of the common 'Carnival devils'. These disguises, however, offered perfect cover to thieves and soon earned the disapproval of civic authorities. The child at the lower left wears a paper crown as his Carnival costume. These popular woodcuts, made to celebrate the Epiphany ('Three Kings Night') were inexpensive and widely circulated. Only a few have survived.
In the tavern at the left customers observe a performance of 'The Dirty Bride', a farce mocking the love of an unappealing rustic couple. In front of the second inn beyond, actors perform one of the popular plays about wild men, perhaps the well-known 'Orson and Valentine'. On a barrel around the corner, a man drinks heartily to the delight of surrounding children, who cry 'Le roi boit!'. The man emerging from the second-story window above empties a bucket of slops on top of him. Nearer the foreground cripples wearing fox-tails as marks of their presumed deceitfulness perform their grotesque dance for alms during the Carnival time.
In the centre of the painting a fool crosses the city square carrying a torch lit in daylight. In Brueghel's time, this long-established practice symbolized the folly of Carnival: 'Bringing daylight out into the sun', for example was a proverb illustrated by both Brueghel the Younger and his father. Originally, such fire symbolism related to fertility rituals, to the awakening of the fields and the renewal of spring.
On the Lenten side to the right, a sermon has ended in the church, and the congregation departs. Several devout women, probably Beguines, emerge through the front portal. They have attended a Lenten service (the statues are covered within the church), but lack the ashen crosses on their foreheads, found in Brueghel the Elder's paintings, which identify the day as Ash Wednesday. From the north portal a second audience departs. They have celebrated Palm Sunday and hold in commemoration small branches, palm being hard to obtain in the Netherlands. Theirs is a modest congregation, for several of them carry their own chairs. Sickness and death are ever-present, invoking Lenten charity. Cripples and orphans are given alms, as is a mother whose husband's corpse [not visible in the present lot] occupies the lower right corner of the painting"
See colour illustration