Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1566, is a large oil and tempera painting on wood panel of a lively scene from peasant life. Peasants eat and drink at a long table in a barn, the bride seated in the rear under a canopy suspended from the wall, near her a pair of cornhusks and rake from fall harvest. Two men carry plates of food on an unhinged door while a pair of bagpipe players makes music. A man in the foreground, possibly the groom, pours beer next to a child who licks a plate. Pieter Bruegel (Brueghel) the Elder (c. 1525 - 1569) was a Dutch/Flemish painter and printmaker of the Northern Renaissance. Among the first artists to incorporate subject matter from landscape and the life of common people, Bruegel all but invented the art of Dutch genre painting. Bruegel painted a number of religious works but is best known for his lively, allegorical paintings of peasants and witty commentary and on life, sin and virtue. His innovative compositions and carefully observed, realistic details influenced many generations of artists, from Rembrandt through the Realists of the modern era.