Medieval Life

Battle of Carnival and Lent

Oil on wood, 121.3 x 171.5cmMusee Rovaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

BRUEGEL, Pieter the Younger(b.1564, Bruxelles, d.1638,

Antwerp)

The Battle of Carnival and Lent has subject matter that can be found in Medieval Literature and plays.

This painting depicts a common festival of the period, as celebrated in the Southern Netherlands. It presents the contrast between two sides of contemporary life, as can be seen by the appearance of the inn on the left side - for enjoyment, and the church on the right side - for religious observance. The busy scene depicts well-behaved children near the church and a beer drinking scene near the inn. Other scenes show a well in the centre (the coming together of different parts of the community), a fish stall and two competing floats.

A battle enacted between the figures Carnival and Lent was an important event in community life in early modern Europe, representing the transition between two different seasonal cuisines: livestock that was not to be wintered was slaughtered, and meat was in good supply. As the period of Lent commenced, with its enforced abstinence and the concomitant spiritual purification in preparation for Easter, the butcher shops closed and the butchers travelled into the countryside to purchase cattle for the spring.

In this painting the figure of Carnival is a large man riding a wine barrel, wearing a huge pie as a head-dress; he is wielding a long spit, complete with a pig’s head, as a weapon (for jousting) for the fight with Lent.

In the foreground, two opposing processions, the one to the left led by the replete figure of Carnival and the one to the right by the haggard figure of Lent, are about to confront each other in a burlesque parody of a joust. Here, on either side of the picture, are feasting and fasting, winter and spring (the trees to the left are leafless, those to the right have leaves), popular jollity and well-ordered charity, the ill-famed tavern and the church as the refuge of the pious soul. Whilst the father's work was not lacking in humour, the son's emphasises the encyclopaedic aspect: the many scenes accompanying the "battle" are all ceremonies or customs attached to the rites of carnival and lent, which succeed each other from Epiphany until Easter.The Web Gallery

The Luttrell PsalterThe Luttrell Psalter is an illuminated manuscript written by monks in Medieval Times.

One of England's greatest art treasures is the Luttrell Psalter. Sir Geoffrey Luttrell was a wealthy Lincolnshire landowner who commissioned the Luttrell Psalter around 1320.

It's an illuminated manuscript considered to have taken approximately ten years to complete. A Psalter (the "p" is silent) takes its name from the psalms (songs) and meditations contained within its pages. In the wide margins around the edge of the tidy calligraphy are delicate decorations, not too unlike what we would call "doodles" today, though infinitely more complex and beautiful. The artist/calligrapher of the Luttrell Psalter is, of course, totally unknown.

Of course it's not the Latin Psalms that interest us today, but the decorating extrania. The Luttrell Psalter is considered by art and literary experts to be the best surviving pictorial documentation of everyday life in England during the Middle Ages.

Ploughing in the Luttrell Psalter.

Harvest wagon from the Luttrell Psalter.

Breaking up clods of mud from the Luttrell Psalter.

Kitchen Scene in the Luttrell Psalter.

Stacking sheaves in the Luttrell Psalter.

Sower at work in the Luttrell Psalter.

Ploughing, sowing, and harrowing from the Luttrell Psalter.

Reaping, carrying, and carting in the Luttrell Psalter.

In Pairs:

• How do these pictures show how hard life was for

the peasant farmers in medieval times?

• For what purpose are these pictures intended for?

ie, to show off to other Lords, or to record farming

at the time?

• How reliably do they show life in Medieval times?

• Once you have finished looking at the pictures, state

what you think they say about the Lord of the

Manor?

Task

Assembled:A. Ballas