Cleveland Museum of Art

Village Fair

Date

1685

Medium

etching

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Though associated with morally questionable behavior, alcohol in the Netherlands was important to long-standing traditions and vital to the economy. This tension plays out in images of village festivals, church holidays, and family events held outdoors. Compared to the orderly fair portrayed by David Teniers, this one is drunken chaos. A fiddler plays while fights break out and stumbling couples take hands to dance. Dogs, chickens, children, and a herd of pigs fill the disorderly space before a makeshift stage with spontaneous acrobatics. Fueling the frenzy is a tavern, at left, out of which a man staggers with a full pitcher. Many rural people in the 1600s had at least one pig, dog, or both. The usefulness and flexible diets of these animals made them easy to live with.

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