A big, joyous Brueghel opens this riveting show at Kettle’s Yard on carnivals all the way from 16th-century Flanders to the present-day Caribbean. It’s all dancing, drinking, brawling and leering, viewed from a vantage point high above a village. Lovers grapple, drinkers swear eternal friendship, pie-eaters compete, chains of dancers flail to the tunes of windy bagpipes before collapsing in a heap. It is the ultimate free-for-all.
Or is it? Brueghel’s painting presents two questions for the viewer. One is pictorial and relates to the conundrum of representing huge crowds without any loss of individuality. The other concerns the strict social rules. Carnival, as it is known, originated in ancient Egypt as a pagan rite, but weaves through Catholic Europe via the Feast of Fools, the Venetian carnival, the French masked ball and so on. All these rituals are depicted in this show.
