The Peasant Dance

Bruegel painted this village celebration late in his life, around 1568, at a church fair once the harvest was in. You can read the season in the foreground, the straw and nutshells scattered on the ground, and see the church itself with market stalls at the far end of the street. It looks like pure high spirits, a couple hurrying in to dance while a bagpiper plays, but Bruegel loaded it with warnings. The man beside the piper wears a peacock feather in his hat, an old sign of vanity, and around the tables you can pick out gluttony, drink and quick tempers. The dancers rush toward the fair and away from the small church behind them, and that direction was the whole point.