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Lot Essay
A bustling slice of 16th-century Netherlandish life, this vibrant panel shows a mixture of peasants and upper class gentlemen and ladies celebrating in a country village. The music, dancing, and general merrymaking indicate that this is a kermesse, though the identity of the honored saint who appears on the fluttering banner on the left cannot be distinguished. Humorous vignettes, often with allegorical meanings, populate the painting. On the far right, for instance, a woman raises her skirt to reveal her undergarments to a dancing suitor, while immediately behind them, a portly man seated on a log watches the spectacle. The onlooker has removed the lid from a ceramic honey pot, seemingly oblivious to his wife and vomiting son behind him - an allusion to the potentially unpleasant and long-lasting results that yielding to sexual temptation may produce. On the opposite side, two men converse while relieving themselves against a tavern wall, unaware of the woman emptying out a pitcher from the window above them. At center, a couple dances between a bagpipe player seated on a barrel and a wandering musician who carries a bumbass (basse de Flandre). This musical instrument, as Ken Moore has observed, is unusual in its appearance, as it seems to have two strings and the pig bladder is positioned at the top. The musician's exotic costume and canine companion suggests that an elaborate performance may be imminent.
We are grateful to Joost van der Auwera for confirming the attribution to Vrancx on the basis of photographs (written communication, 12 November 2013). Van der Auwera compares the figures, who are dressed in the latest French fashions, to those in Vrancx's signed and dated 1633 panel in the M.C.G. Fineman collection, Stockholm (R.K. neg. Nr. L 31195.Vrancx). He suggests that the tree and possibly some of the peasant figures on the right that are done in a very Brueghelesque manner, could be by another hand. Such collaboration is not unusual for Vrancx: his Pillaging after the battle (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, inv. 10,863), for example, was painted with Jan Brueghel II and another artist. Van der Auwera suggests that the most likely candidate for Vrancx's collaborator here is Jacques van der Wijhen (b. c. 1588), who was greatly influenced by Vrancx.
We are also grateful to Jørgen Wadum for confirming the maker's mark as that of Guilliam Gabron (written communication, 24 November 2013). Wadum specifies that the stamp is Gabron's second punch, which was in use between 1626 and 1658(?).
We are grateful to Joost van der Auwera for confirming the attribution to Vrancx on the basis of photographs (written communication, 12 November 2013). Van der Auwera compares the figures, who are dressed in the latest French fashions, to those in Vrancx's signed and dated 1633 panel in the M.C.G. Fineman collection, Stockholm (R.K. neg. Nr. L 31195.Vrancx). He suggests that the tree and possibly some of the peasant figures on the right that are done in a very Brueghelesque manner, could be by another hand. Such collaboration is not unusual for Vrancx: his Pillaging after the battle (Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, inv. 10,863), for example, was painted with Jan Brueghel II and another artist. Van der Auwera suggests that the most likely candidate for Vrancx's collaborator here is Jacques van der Wijhen (b. c. 1588), who was greatly influenced by Vrancx.
We are also grateful to Jørgen Wadum for confirming the maker's mark as that of Guilliam Gabron (written communication, 24 November 2013). Wadum specifies that the stamp is Gabron's second punch, which was in use between 1626 and 1658(?).