Peasant Wedding (detail);

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Title	Peasant Wedding (detail);
Title Alternative	Wedding Feast (detail);
File Name	civ metadata CID; Civ Archive 033 correct picture; 98400719.jpg
Copyright Status/Owner	Public Domain; Need to Request
Rights (Patron Usage Instructions)	http://www.lib.byu.edu/genericnote_copyright.html
Course	HUM 202
Lecture Number	4
Professor	Green, Jon D., 1940-
Description	Pieter Bruegel the Elder was famous for painting scenes from peasant life and here he depicts a wedding feast that would have followed a Church wedding ceremony. The barn setting provides ample space for the makeshift banquet. Approximately twenty guests are gathered at the table, while others crowd about the entrance at the far left, probably due to the laws that were passed limiting the number of participants. The time is early autumn, as indicated by the sheaves of wheat hanging on the wall. Peasant Wedding exhibits a sophisticated composition, in which the diagonal arrangement of the table draws leads the eye across the entire painting and interior of the barn. This detail highlights some interesting details from the celebration. The bride sits at the table underneath a green blanket, meant to serve as a cloth of honor, and wears a peppermint crown made out of paper to indicate her status as queen of the day. She is flanked by her parents on the right and her new in-laws on the left, and her husband is most likely the man reaching for another pudding. The two figures in the foreground use an unhinged door as a tray to bring more pudding to the feast. There has been much debate regarding how contemporaries would have understood these types of paintings. Many have interpreted this painting to be a representation of gluttony and to carry didactic overtones, exaggerating the foolish behavior of the peasants, to instruct the viewer how not to behave. However, the obvious humor and lightheartedness apparent in the scene has led some to view Bruegel’s representation as more sympathetic to the peasant; perhaps the painting was meant in some way to celebrate the enjoyment that could be had at these types of gatherings. The lack of detailed individualization, which is heightened by the many turned backs, serves to heighten the emphasis on the subtle wisdom of the peasant, a theme commonly expressed in contemporary proverbs and parables.
Creator	Bruegel, Pieter, ca. 1525-1569
Country	Flanders
Geographic Region	Europe
Type	Slide
Platform	Cross-Platform
File Size	201.088 KB
Genre	Paintings
Category	Art
Keywords	Bruegel, Pieter; Wedding Feast; Peasant; Flemish art; Northern Renaissance;
Time Period	Northern Renaissance
Date Range	1568 AD: 1600 AD
Date Original	1568 AD
Date Digital	2005-03-29
Metadata Entry Date	2009-08-11
Quality	Low
Contributors	Brigham Young University
Edition	Electronic reproduction;
Format	JPEG
Owning Institution	Kunsthistorishes Museum, Vienna
Physical Description	44-7/8 x 64-1/8 in.
Publisher Digital	Brigham Young University
Source	John Canaday, “Bruegel through his rollicking pictures of peasant life shines a sober philosophy of man's place in nature"", Horizon 9, no. 1 (Winter, 1967), 33; James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art, 2nd ed., revised by Larry Silver and Henry Luttikhuizen (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005), 509.
Use Time	0:00:00

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