The Feast of the Bean King
around 1640/45 | Jacob Jordaens
The painting depicts the Flemish folk custom on Epiphany Day: the person able to find a bean hidden in a cake becomes king of the Feast, and then chooses the most beautiful woman as queen. Those others present assume “honorary offices”. The Latin inscription (in English: “None is closer to the fool than the drunkard”) lends the degenerate carryings-on a moralistic undertone. Artistically Jordaens absorbed himself in the art of Caravaggio, Rubens and other Dutch painters, yet developed a characteristic style of his own.
The painting depicts the Flemish folk custom on Epiphany Day: the person able to find a bean hidden in a cake becomes king of the Feast, and then chooses the most beautiful woman as queen. Those others present assume “honorary offices”. The Latin inscription (in English: “None is closer to the fool than the drunkard”) lends the degenerate carryings-on a moralistic undertone. Artistically Jordaens absorbed himself in the art of Caravaggio, Rubens and other Dutch painters, yet developed a characteristic style of his own.
Artist:
Jacob Jordaens (1593 Antwerpen - 1678 Antwerpen) DNB
Time:
around 1640/45
Object Name
Painting
Culture
Flemish
Material/technology:
Canvas
Dimensions:
242 cm × 300 cm
Framed: 287,5 cm × 346 cm × 18 cm
Inscribed
Auf der Kartusche im Hintergrund der Spruch: NIL. SIMILIVS. INSANO. QVAM. EBRIVS.
Copyright
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie
Invs.
Gemäldegalerie, 786
Provenance
Coll. Leopold Wilhelm