The Peasant Dance

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The Peasant Dance: Pieter Brueghel the Elder

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Pieter Brueghel the Elder Oil Painting - The Peasant Dance

Keywords: Peasant, Dance

Work Overview: The Peasant Dance
Artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Year 1567
Type Oil on panel
Dimensions 114 cm × 164 cm (45 in × 65 in)
Location Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Peasant Dance is an oil-on-panel by the Netherlandish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in c. 1569. It is currently held and exhibited at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

This panel, not signed nor dated, was looted by Napoleon Bonaparte and brought to Paris in 1808, being returned in 1815.[1] It was painted at about the same time as The Peasant Wedding, that is, circa 1567. The sizes of the two paintings are the same and they may have been intended as a pair or as part of a series illustrating peasant life.[2] They are the two most outstanding examples of Bruegel's late style, which is characterized by his use of monumental Italianate figures.

Like The Peasant Wedding, it is likely that Bruegel intended this painting to have a moral sense rather than simply being an affectionate portrayal of peasant life. Gluttony, lust and anger can all be identified in the picture. The man seated next to the bagpipe player wears a peacock feather in his hat, a symbol of vanity and pride.[4] The occasion for the peasants' revelry is a saint's day, but dancers turn their backs on the church and pay no attention whatsoever to the image of the Virgin which hangs on the tree. The prominence of the tavern makes it clear that they are preoccupied with material rather than spiritual matters.

This panel, which is not dated, was painted at about the same time as The Peasant Wedding, that is, about 1567. The sizes of the two paintings are the same and they may have been intended as a pair or as part of a series illustrating peasant life. They are the two most outstanding examples of Bruegel's late style, which is characterized by his use of monumental Italianate figures.

The running and jumping steps of the village-square dance have nothing in common with the formal dances performed at court or in bourgeois circles. Nor do we find here the care for and adornment of one's face customary in more elevated circles, by means of which supposed faults of nature were to be corrected.

There is another version of this subject by Bruegel in a painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts. It is dated 1566 and although the surface is rather worn, it is today generally accepted as an authentic work from Bruegel's own hand. The composition is more crowded and in consequence more effective than the Vienna picture.

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Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Work Overview