Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569)
The Peasant Wedding
c.1568
Oil on oak, 113 × 164 × 3.2 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
The apparent “snapshot” of this picture is in fact carefully composed. Dispensing with allegorical meaning the painting is a realistic record of a Flemish peasants’ wedding. The bride sits in front of a green tapestry, a paper crown hangs over her. The bridegroom was not present at the wedding feast in accordance with Flemish custom. A lawyer with a mortar–board, a Franciscan monk and the lord of the manor with his dog (to the far right) are all visible; the porridge dishes carried in on an unhinged door are utterly simple, and the posture and gait of the carriers are similarly striking. (KHM)