This serge by Pieter Brueghel the Elder depicts the feast of St Martin’s wine. On 11 November, the saint’s feast day, the Saint Martin’s goose was eaten (coinciding with the autumn slaughter) and the first wine of the new season, known as Saint Martin’s wine, was tasted. Precisely because the festival coincided with the end of the grape harvest, in the middle of autumn, the celebrations of the saint were associated with the distribution of the wine to the people, which took place outside the city gates. Despite the presence of Saint Martin parting his cloak on the right, this is neither a religious painting nor a devotional work. The depiction focuses on the celebration of the saint’s feast day, as it took place in Flanders and the Germanic countries.
Collection: Images
Project: 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity., 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe.
Chronology: XVI
Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University
Resource type: Image
Format: Tempera glue on serge (148 x 270,5 cm)
Source: Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Language: Spanish
Date: 1566-67
Owner: Álvaro Romero González (Modernalia)
Identifier: P008040
Copyright: Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Abstract: Brueghel depicted here the festival of wine and St. Martin in Early Modern Europe with a large crowd of peasants celebrating the autumn slaughter
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