Officier berispt drinkende militair zonder uniform c. 1840

Nicolas Toussaint Charlet created this print of an officer berating an out-of-uniform solider, both holding glasses, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Note the raised glass, an ambivalent symbol of celebration and defiance; observe how the act of drinking, universally associated with conviviality, here becomes a flashpoint for tension. One man raises his glass in a toast or drunken exclamation, while the other raises his with a silencing gesture. Consider depictions of the 'Bacchanal' of classical antiquity. The god Bacchus is nearly always depicted raising a glass, usually deep in revelry with his followers. The opposition between celebration and sobriety can be seen throughout art history, like a pendulum swinging between abandon and restraint. The gesture of the raised glass becomes a symbol of collective memory. It embodies a struggle between instinctive desires and societal norms, ever-present and continuously negotiated across time.