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Burlesque Feast
Mandijn, Jan
Haarlem, the Netherlands, 15/02/1502-Antwerp, Belgium, 1560
Oil on oak panel
98.5 x 147 cm
c. 1550
Mid-16th century
69/168
Bequeathed by Laureano de Jado in 1927
The number 334-- below, on the left--belongs to the will of the Marquis of Leganés (one of the most important collectors in the reign of Philip IV), executed upon his death on 6 April 1655, as reported by Ana Sánchez-Lassa and Maite Rodríguez Torres in their 2003 study on this work. This inventory says: "334 a painting measuring one and a third varas wide and one sesma tall by the same hand [Hieronymus Bosch], a peasant wedding with various eccentric figures on wood panel, in 1500 reales". The attribution to Bosch remained in place when the painting later belonged to the collections of the house of Altamira and the Marquis of Salamanca. On a photographic plaque made by Laurent in the residence of the Marquis of Salamanca between 1872 and 1879, it appeared as "Bosch... Un banquet fantastique". In the collection of Don Laureano de Jado, it was ascribed to Pieter Brueghel the Elder, although by the time it was donated to the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum in 1927 it was attributed to Jan Mandijn and entitled Banquet of Scoundrels.
It has been called Burlesque Feast since 1955, its current title, and the ascription to Jan Mandijn still stands, although it is questioned by some experts like Paul Vandenbroeck and Walter Gibson. In his 1984 article on Verbeeck's peasant weddings in the journal Simiolus, Vandenbroeck judged the panel in Bilbao to be a work by this family (just as Gibson did in that same journal in 1992) who worked in Malinas in the 16th century. His attribution was based on its similarity to a fabric painting of the same theme in the museum of Nuremberg, although later he accepted its attribution to Mandijn.
Very little information on Jan Mandijn exists; what does exist was compiled by Marc Rudolf de Vrij in his 2006 book on the painter. Carel van Mander refers to him in his 1604 Schilderboeck (The Book of Painters) as the author of "fantasies" in the style of Bosch, with whom he associates the artist, as he does Frans Verbeeck. Born in Haarlem, Mandijn moved to Antwerp prior to 1530 and died there in 1560. Since no documented work of his still survives, his style has been reconstructed based on the signed wooden panel of The Temptation of Saint Anthony from the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, although the authenticity of this signature has been questioned. Based on this, The Trial of Job in the Douai Museum (France), which is very similar to our panel, has also been ascribed to Mandijn. Even though some of the works attributed to Mandijn have been considered to be by Peeter Huys-a follower of Bosch, like Mandijn-whose style is perfectly identifiable because of his signed works, there is no doubt that the panels in Haarlem, Douai and Bilbao are not by Huys. The technical documentation on the Burlesque Feast in Bilbao, published by Sánchez-Lassa and Rodríguez Torres in the aforementioned study, shows a highly personal drawing underneath with plenty of rectifications which is totally distinct from the ones found in works like The Last Judgement signed by Huys in the Museo del Prado, published in 2003 by this author.
As Vandenbroeck pointed out in 1984, this Burlesque Feast shows a peasant wedding in a satirical tone with a moralising lesson. "Peasantry" was traditionally synonymous with "stupid", and this label was applied by extension to people considered uneducated. Meant for the higher social classes, this painting depicts the reprehensible behaviours of the peasantry with the twofold purpose of entertaining and teaching. Given its "burlesque" feel, the representation varies and incorporates different symbols, some of which are difficult to interpret. Worth highlighting is the bride, seated in front of a heavy, filthy, red canopy wearing a crown of wooden spoons, a symbol of gluttony or greed, and egg shells, which are associated with vanity and lust. Above her, hanging from the canopy, is a garland of laurel leaves, an egg shell and a jingle bell, which is related to madness. The V-shaped sign that the bride is making with her index and middle fingers of her left hand reinforce the idea of her lack of judgement.
The figures depicted -which are ridiculed through caricatures, accentuating their ugliness- include the grotesque four-footed dwarf carrying a torch in the foreground, and the old hunchbacked woman on the far left with on owl perched on her hand, alluding to madness and foolishness. Next to her is a woman with a falcon, a symbol of concupiscence, whose face, just like other figures, is covered as if in Carnival, when it was common to enact this kind of burlesque wedding. One sign of the excesses associated with these festivities is the man in the bottom left corner leaning on a barrel and vomiting. At the rear left, the scene connects with the nuptial bedroom, preceded by a gallery where two musicians play the hunting horn and a kind of oboe. (Pilar Silva Maroto)
Selected bibliography
- Catálogo de la Galería de Cuadros del Excmo. Sr. D. José de Madrazo .... Madrid, Imprenta de D. Cipriano Lopez, 1856. p. 113, n° cat. 463. (Con el título Alegoría que parece representar la intemperancia, y atribuido a Gerónimo Bos)
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- L'art flamand dans les collections espagnoles [Cat. exp.]. Bruges, Les Presses Saint Augustin, 1958. p. 94, n° cat. 69. (Con el título Festin Burlesque)
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- Vandenbroeck, Paul. "Verbeeck's peasant weddings : a study of iconography and social function", Nederlands quarterly for the history of Art, n° 14. 1984. pp. 79-124, fig. 7.
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