The Whole Town Came Crowding

The Whole Town Came Crowding Commentary by Louisa McKenzie Cite Share Show Bible Passage Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s bustling scene is filled with vignettes from daily life in the southern Netherlands in the mid-sixteenth century. These figures represent the two diametrically opposed sides of the forty days preceding Easter. The ribald excess of the last few days before Lent, culminating on Shrove Tuesday—filled with gluttony and gaming—contrasts with the severe austerity of Lent—with its prayer, pilgrims, and alms. This tradition still continues in much of the Catholic Low Countries. The two main protagonists, themselves personifications of Carnival and Lent, prepare to do battle in the foreground. On the left, Carnival, a fat butcher astride a barrel, wields a spit laden with meat as a lance. Facing him, Lent, a cadaverous woman on a hard wooden chair, is pulled forward by a monk and a nun. Lent wields a long paddle used by bakers to slide bread in and out of the oven, topped with two herrings, representative of foods typically consumed during the period of Lenten fast. Although firmly anchored in a typical market square, Brueghel’s painting is rich with symbols relating to the struggle between Carnival and Lent—symbolism that would have been familiar to his contemporaries from traditions, proverbs, and other literary and visual sources. For example, the inn that dominates the left-hand side of the painting is named ‘In the Blue Barge’ (In de Blauwe Schuit), a reference to the guild of the blue barge, a ritual brotherhood active during Shrovetide (Lichtert 2014: 85–86). The guild took part in Carnival processions, mocking the established social order through costumes and acts. Also present, however, are scenes that would have been a familiar part of any town. At the top right a woman sells wax ex-votos from a table outside the church, its statues veiled for Lent. The opposing camps of Carnival and Lent represent rejoicing and renewal respectively—two qualities also embodied by the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. References Lichtert, Katrien. 2014. ‘The Artist, the City and the Urban Theatre: Pieter Bruegel’s ‘Battle between Shrovetide and Lent’ (1559) Reconsidered’, in Portraits of the City: Representing Urban Space in Later Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. by Katrien Lichtert, Jan Dumolyn, and Maximiliaan P. J. Martens (Turnhout: Brepols), pp. 83–96