MANDIJN, Jan

This motley banquet is a satirical depiction of a peasant wedding to which a number of guests have been invited, all equally bizarre and absurd. The scene, packed with anecdotes and symbols, unfolds in an interior in which the guests, following mediaeval custom, are seated at one side only of the tables, according to their rank. The main character is a stout and slovenly bride wearing a crown of wooden spoons, the symbol of gluttony, and eggshells, the symbol of crassitude and lechery. Behind her a red drapery is vaulted like a baldachin on which rests a crown of laurel, both of which were customary elements in Flemish peasant weddings of the 16th and 17th centuries, while the rattle hanging from the crown of laurel is another reference to foolishness.

The motif of this painting mirrors the mediaeval literature of the Netherlands, where the peasant class was the butt of jokes and satire. In the 16th century the term ‘peasant’ was synonymous with ‘fool’, and therefore works depicting reprehensible actions by classes considered to be inferior by the bourgeoisie had a moralistic quality.

Alongside Peter Huys and Jan Verbeeck, Mandijn belonged to a group of painters characterised by their taste for burlesque themes. Mandijn sought inspiration in Bosch’s painting to give free rein to his fantasy, acquiring a reputation as a “maker of mischievous and outrageous scenes”.

Although Hieronymus Bosch died in 1516, his work inspired numerous artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. The temptation of St Anthony is a frequently treated subject in Northern European art of the Renaissance. Mandijn drew inspiration for the present panel from Bosch’s famous triptych treating this subject, particularly from the final panel in which the saint is confronted by the ultimate temptation: that of the flesh.

The theme of the tempted hero has been a favourite among artists since antiquity: conqueror of evil, resistant to his ordeals, impassive in the face of temptation, St Anthony was able to stand up to the devil and his numerous vices. In this version of the subject, placed in the middle of a large panoramic landscape, St Anthony retreats into prayer to better fight the fantastic and satanic fauna pressing around him.