The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder

John Doe

Rich in allegorical detail, the 1559 painting contrasts somber Lenten penance, charity and abstinence from meat with Carnival feasting, masking, games and foolery. In the foreground is a mock jousting contest between figures representing Carnival and Lent. Propelled by an entourage of musicians and costumed revelers, a jolly fat man, personifying Carnival, sits astride a large wine barrel holding a long cooking skewer threaded with a pig’s head, sausages and a chicken. Bearing two small fish on a baker’s paddle, Lent — dour, pale and gaunt — sits on a church chair and advances on a trolley drawn by a friar and a nun. Following behind, children eat flatbread and burghers give alms to beggars.

Rich in allegorical detail, the 1559 painting contrasts somber Lenten penance, charity and abstinence from meat with Carnival feasting, masking, games and foolery. In the foreground is a mock jousting contest between figures representing Carnival and Lent. Propelled by an entourage of musicians and costumed revelers, a jolly fat man, personifying Carnival, sits astride a large wine barrel holding a long cooking skewer threaded with a pig’s head, sausages and a chicken. Bearing two small fish on a baker’s paddle, Lent — dour, pale and gaunt — sits on a church chair and advances on a trolley drawn by a friar and a nun. Following behind, children eat flatbread and burghers give alms to beggars.