The King Drinks 

Pieter Brueghel the Younger made this painting of people celebrating, likely on canvas, in the late 16th or early 17th century. The scene depicts a boisterous celebration of the feast of the Epiphany, also known as the Three Kings Day, in what was then the Spanish Netherlands. Brueghel renders the rituals of peasant life with a critical eye. The so-called 'king' is elected by whoever finds the bean hidden in a cake, but here he is a corpulent figure, already drunk, whose authority is a parody of real power. The chaos of the scene, from the vomiting peasant to the children raiding the food, is a controlled and ritualistic overturning of social norms, but it's also a commentary on social order. Brueghel seems to suggest that the lower classes are naturally inclined to a debauched lifestyle when freed from their social restraints. These images offer us a valuable window into the lives and social attitudes of the time. Examining records, literature, and other visual sources from the period can give us a richer understanding of the artist's intentions and the painting’s original context.