Preparing for Lent: The Battle between Carnival and Lent

PATRICK COMMERFORD

The Battle between Carnival and Lent’ (1559), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Courtesy of the collection of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

NETHERLANDS---My choice of a work of art for meditation this morning, the second day of Lent, is "The Battle between Carnival and Lent" (1559) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca 1525-1569). The painting depicts a popular, traditional festival in the Southern Netherlands in the mid-16th century. The painting presents a contrast between two sides of contemporary life, represented by the inn on the left, with a group of raucous drunkards nearby, and the church on the right, with a group of well-behaved children sitting nearby. This juxtaposition illustrates and contrasts the two sides of human nature: pleasure and religious chastity. [link]