Abstract
Banquets and casual eating scenes in northern Renaissance art frequently include musical instruments for a variety of purposes. Northern Renaissance works such as Pieter Bruegel’s Battle of Carnival and Lent use images of music in order to emphasize the extreme lifestyles of prodigality and abstinence. The Rhenish Master’s Paradise Garden, however, includes a psaltery in order to stress temperance and harmony. While specific instruments reflect stereotypes regarding elements of social class and morality, these stereotypes are contradicted by the artists’ works and real life situations. The cosmic significance of musical iconography ennobles the feast scene by offering a more civilized counterpart to simple eating. Nevertheless, northern artists frequently express a level of irony in such works. Albrecht Dürer’s Mens’ Bath condemns sensual overindulgence that led to disease and moral disorder. Hieronymus Bosch’s works show an ironic world where musical instruments perform on sinners. Bosch commonly places musical instruments in the context of eating in a fantastic manner that raises the symbolism to a higher level. The works of Bosch often depict fantastic landscapes overrun by monstrous demons and strange hybrids. Musical instruments serve more as moral symbols in biblical banquet scenes. For the most part, they underscore the wealth and corruption of the world or a distraction from God. Musical instruments are used in Lucas Van Leyden’s Worshiping the Golden Calf and Quinten Massys’s St John Triptych to reinforce man’s unchecked hedonism. In peasant banquets and festivals, artists more often use the bagpipe in order to highlight the social class of the figures. While many peasant scenes depict musical instrument in the context of brawls, vomiting, and love making, Pieter Bruegel’s bagpipe figures betray an intense interest in the culture of rural workers. The study of musical iconography in northern Renaissance banquet scenes reflects a multifaceted culture.
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