The Feast of St George with Theatre and Procession

In Flanders, village feasts took place to celebrate Saints Days to whom churches and the country’s town and village guilds were dedicated. These feasts were always accompanied by religious processions but also by theatrical shows, games and archery competitions.

Here, the village square, which lies at the heart of the feast, is seen from above. This procedure allowed Peeter Baltens to linger over a myriad of episodes. Grouped together in this way, they constitute a summary of the celebrations and allow more than a hundred characters to be presented in the same painting. The dominant red of the clothes, typical in Baltens’s works, adds to the rhythm of the whole, reinforcing the effect of joyous excitement that emanates from the paintings of the master.