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1 à 4. Among the “lower orders”, any pretext is good enough to forget the hardships of daily life. This explains why there were so many festivals, more or less religious, corresponding (advantageously) to today’s paid holidays. One painters’ favourite was the Feast of the Epiphany, more commonly known as the Feast of Kings, which commemorated the presentation of the baby Jesus to the Magi.

It was a very popular holiday, thought to be more important than Christmas. While the festival was religious, the galette des rois became a family tradition, an excuse for celebration and therefore wines – see Jacob Jordaens’s The King Drinks, The Feast of the Bean King (also by Jordaens) or Gabriel Metsu’s painting on the same theme.

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5. In his numerous paintings of everyday family life, Steen liked to moralise. He did this through references to Scripture, old proverbs, aphorisms and symbolism. Here, the king is shown as a young boy, apparently chosen at random. An old woman is helping him to empty his glass. The woman slumped on the chair seems tipsy.  Her low neckline allows the viewer a glimpse of her breasts. A supposedly faithful wife, does her slightly malicious expression here imply a recent moral lapse? The uncaged bird leads us to suspect this. Even empty, the birdcage is a reminder of the bonds of marriage. The empty cage, also present in Vermeer’s The Music Lesson, symbolises captivity in love, a popular theme among Dutch painters.

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6. Steen’s As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young shows a festive family scene: the characters eat, play music, drink, smoke, laugh and shout. This time, the cage holds two birds. The woman holds out her glass for more wine. The wine sparkles; a pitcher sits forgotten on the floor near the woman’s feet. On the right, the father (Steen himself) shows his young son how to smoke a pipe. The song, visible on the old woman’s paper, refers back to an old Flemish proverb which criticises adults who set children a bad example.

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7. Steen’s Country Wedding plunges us into another scene of rural feasting – a wedding. The whole village is enjoying the party.

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8. Not all Steen’s paintings show wantonness and lust! Here, the message is much more downbeat. At this village fete, two young musicians play for a dancing couple, while other characters flirt, eat, drink wine and smoke and children play under a vine-covered arbour. Despite the apparent frivolity of the scene, Steen uses emblems such as cut flowers, broken eggshells and soap bubbles to remind the viewer of the short-lived nature of earthly pleasures.

The church in the background reminds us that we should live by more durable (Christian) values.

 

 

​9. In Garden Party, we move on to an upper-class celebration with music and food. Jan Steen sets the scene in a garden. His allegory of the five senses puts the viewer in the position of the Sense of Sight. The status of this elegant and joyful gathering is shown in the luxurious table settings and relatively subdued behavior of the guests.

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The invitees are for the most part well-behaved; some, shown from behind, are wearing sumptuous velveteen coats and feathers in their hats. Wine, music and gallantry are at the heart of the fun.

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10. In his Kitchen Scene, David Teniers the Younger takes us behind the scenes. A magnificent pie prepared by the kitchen staff, decorated with a whole swan, draws the eye while large containers of wine wait to be opened.

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11. Created in the Middle Ages by the Guild of Butchers, the Fete du Bœuf Gras (Feast of the Fat Cow) would take place during the Paris Carnival, during the ‘fat days’ before Lent. A cow (or fat bull) would be paraded by butcher boys accompanied by a dancing master – here, a young man who is shown playing the pochette, a miniature violin with a long handle. In other corteges, a hurdy gurdy was played. The cow would be killed on Mardi Gras, before Lent began on Ash Wednesday.

The French Revolution put an end to this popular tradition: eyed with suspicion like all parts of the Carnival, the feast was banned in 1790 in the name of public order.

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12.  Velázquez painted this picture of Bacchus surrounded by eight drinkers for Philippe IV, who hung it in his summer bedroom. This work is not only unique in its genre, but also stands out in Spanish painting in general because drinking scenes were very rare (unlike in Dutch or Flemish painting). Drunkenness was considered a despicable vice in Spain. The word ‘borracho’ (‘drunk’) was a terrible insult. This work shows harvest workers toasting. It can be interpreted in a number of ways and is still a subject of discussion among art historians. William Sterling (Velázquez and his Works, 1865) described it thus: “With The Drinkers, Velázquez proves that, despite painting princes, he has not forgotten how to paint grotesque figures. This composition of nine life-sized figures shows a vulgar Bacchus, crowned with vine leaves and sitting on a barrel; he places a similar crown on his comrade’s head. The ceremony is carried out with that gravity so typical to drunkards, in the presence of a few peasants affected by the wine to varying degrees. One is seated, lost in sombre meditation; another, his cup well-filled, has just delivered a joke to a third man which provokes a burst of laughter, hence the distortion of his jaw. A fourth figure, slightly behind the others, has drunk to excess like the third; rolling around on a bench, he contemplates the goblet in his hand. In terms of force of character and lively colors, this painting has never been surpassed; the humorous tone of the piece assures Velázquez’s status as The Andalusian Hogarth.”

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These peasants are celebrating the end of the harvest and the changing of the season. They are throwing a joyful bacchanal in honor of Bacchus (the Roman name for Dionysus), god of excitement, frenzy and enthusiasm for wine. It seems that Rubens may have inspired Velázquez with his description of a masked ball in honor of the Archduke Albert the Pious and his wife Claire Eugénie, which had taken place in Brussels several years earlier; but the artist may also have had another event in mind: a cavalry procession in Madrid not dissimilar to the painting...