Shop art print and framed art The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

The Fight of Carnival and Lent is an oil painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder from 1559, depicting a traditional (festive and symbolic) fight of the period, in which two floats and two figures were charged with embodying the contrast between two themes: mardi gras (= Carnival, etymologically meaning “farewell to meat”) and ash Wednesday (= Lent, when only the consumption of fish was permitted). These two rival parades were eventually to clash: the painting depicts the moment when they cross their respective spears in a busy market square.

The festival of the battle between the figures of Carnival and Lent was an important event in 16th-century Europe, representing the transition between two spiritual seasons: Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, but also between two culinary seasons: one with meat and one without - i.e., with fish. Indeed, Carnival is above all a “farewell to meat” (Carnival comes from the words “carne” = meat and “vale” = farewell). The fasting of Lent was intended to prepare and purify people for Easter (when meat and eggs could reappear - hence “Easter eggs”), and excluded the consumption of meat: the butchers' guilds therefore closed their shops for the 40 days, and went out into the countryside to prepare their flocks for spring.

This painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, rich in allegory and iconographic symbolism, has been the subject of extensive study. The painting is often understood as the triumph of Lent: the large figure embodying Carnival has his eyes raised to heaven and seems to be saying goodbye with his raised hand, as if to wave goodbye and retire. This understanding seems coherent insofar as Lent follows Carnival in the chronological order of festivals [...].

This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the flemish & northern renaissance style.

« The Fight Between Carnival and Lent » is kept at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

Find the full description of The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brueghel the Elder on Wikipedia.