Peasant Dance
1550 | Pieter Aertsen
Apparently the three main figures were Aertsen’s models because they recur in other pictures with the exact same appearance. The mood of the scene is set by the turned head and threatning gaze of a gaunt peasant combined with a meal depicted as a still life in the foreground. The window-like view into the inn is reminiscent of the parable of the Prodigal Son and his “riotous living”. Not yet a genre painting, the Peasant Dance is an important and interesting predecessor of the type.
Apparently the three main figures were Aertsen’s models because they recur in other pictures with the exact same appearance. The mood of the scene is set by the turned head and threatning gaze of a gaunt peasant combined with a meal depicted as a still life in the foreground. The window-like view into the inn is reminiscent of the parable of the Prodigal Son and his “riotous living”. Not yet a genre painting, the Peasant Dance is an important and interesting predecessor of the type.
Artist:
Pieter Aertsen (1508/09 - 1575 Amsterdam) DNB
Time:
1550
Object Name
Painting
Culture
Netherlandish
Material/technology:
oak wood
Dimensions:
84,9 cm x 170 cm x 0,9 cm
Framed: 99,5 cm x 184,5 cm x 7 cm
Signed
on the window cross dat. 1550. monogram visible in the IRR
Copyright
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie
Invs.
Gemäldegalerie, 2365
Provenance
documented in the imperial collections between 1610-1919;