La Danse de mariage

Bruegel painted this crowd of about 125 dancing villagers in 1566, in the Netherlands of his day. Dancing like this made the authorities and the church uneasy. It was tied in their minds to drink and lust and the road to sin, and plenty of Bruegel's viewers would have read the picture as a mild warning. You can see why. The men's codpieces are pointedly emphasised, and the whole scene tips toward the earthy. But Bruegel watches these people too closely and too fondly for it to be a simple scolding. The painting was found in England in 1930 by the director of the Detroit museum, which owns it, one of a small group of peasant celebrations Bruegel made in these years.