The Peasant Dance

The Peasant Dance
Artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Year 1567
Type Oil on panel
Dimensions 114 cm × 164 cm (45 in × 65 in)
Location Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Peasant Dance is an oil-on-panel by Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in c. 1569. It is currently held and exhibited at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Description

Detail 1 from left composition

This panel, not signed nor dated, was looted by Napoleon Bonaparte and brought to Paris in 1808, being returned in 1815.[1] It was painted at about the same time as The Peasant Wedding, that is, circa 1567. The sizes of the two paintings are the same and they may have been intended as a pair or as part of a series illustrating peasant life.[2] They are the two most outstanding examples of Bruegel's late style, which is characterized by his use of monumental Italianate figures.[3]

Details

Like The Peasant Wedding, it is likely that Bruegel intended this painting to have a moral sense rather than simply being an affectionate portrayal of peasant life. Gluttony, lust and anger can all be identified in the picture. The man seated next to the bagpipe player wears a peacock feather in his hat, a symbol of vanity and pride.[4] The occasion for the peasants' revelry is a saint's day, but dancers turn their backs on the church and pay no attention whatsoever to the image of the Virgin which hangs on the tree. The prominence of the tavern makes it clear that they are preoccupied with material rather than spiritual matters.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Danza di contadini.
  2. ↑ Cf. Pietro Allegretti, Brueghel, Skira, Milano 2003. ISBN 0-00-001088-X (Italian)
  3. ↑ There is another version of this subject by Bruegel in a painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts, entitled The Wedding Dance (see image at Wikimedia: "Bruegel dance 1566 Detroit"). It is dated 1566 and although the surface is rather worn, it is today generally accepted as an authentic work from Bruegel's own hand. The composition is more crowded and in consequence more effective than the Vienna picture.
  4. ↑ See Grove Art Online
  5. ↑ Screech, Matthew (2005). Masters of the ninth art: bandes dessinées and Franco-Belgian identity. Liverpool University Press. p. 85.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Peasant Dance.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 27, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.