Rijksmuseum

A Flemish Kermis with a Performance of the Farce ‘Een cluyte van Plaeyerwater’

Date

c. 1570

Medium

panel, oil paint (paint)

Institution

Rijksmuseum

Peeter Baltens, a painter in the circle of Pieter Bruegel, played an important role in the Antwerp artists’ guild. He was also a rederijker (rhetorician): a poet and an actor. A comic dramatic work is being performed on the makeshift stage in the middle of this kermis scene. The farce is about a man – hidden in a pedlar’s basket – who catches his wife cheating on him with a clergyman.

The authoritative record is held by Rijksmuseum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.