"The Peasant Dance" (cropped) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted ca.1567; the original is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It portrays celebrations on a holy festival, although the carnal exuberance of the dancers betrays the occasion: Bruegel's purpose being to illustrate the sin of lust. The dancers are caught up in the music of the pipes, itself fuelled by beer from the tavern at top left, and ignore the church in the background. |