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''The Fight Between Carnival and Lent'' is an oil-on-panel work painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1559. This painting depicts a common festival of the period, as celebrated in the Southern Netherlands.〔Cunningham and Grell (2000)〕 It presents the contrast between two sides of contemporary life, as can be seen by the appearance of the inn on the left side - for enjoyment, and the church on the right side - for religious observance. The busy scene depicts well-behaved children near the church and a beer drinking scene near the inn. At the centre is a well, showing the coming together of different parts of the community, and other scenes show a fish stall and two competing floats. The painting is part of the collection at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. ==Symbolism== A battle enacted between the figures Carnival and Lent was an important event in community life in early modern Europe, representing the transition between two different seasonal cuisines: livestock that was not to be wintered was slaughtered, and meat was in good supply.〔The dominating interpretation revolves around the conflict between Protestant (Carnival) and Catholic (Lent) churches. In fact, the Netherlands were in a state of constant religious conflict between Calvinism and Catholic reform. Moreover, scholars associated the Carnival with popular tradition and Lent with the clergy that was trying to suppress many popular festivities.〕 As the period of Lent commenced, with its enforced abstinence and the concomitant spiritual purification in preparation for Easter, the butcher shops closed and the butchers traveled into the countryside to purchase cattle for the spring.〔Jean Elizabeth Howard, Marion F. O'Connor, ''Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology'' Routledge 2005, ISBN 0-415-35312-2, page 215〕 Bruegel's painting is rich in allegories and symbolisms that have been long studied. It is often read as the triumph of Lent, since the figure of Carnival seems to bid farewell with his left hand and his eyes lifted to the sky. A more generalised meaning may be the illustration of Bruegel's belief that human activities are motivated by folly and self-seeking.〔Certain motifs frequently recur in Bruegel's work: the group of cripples and beggars on Carnival's side of the square, ignored by the revellers, can be seen again (with some variations) in his ''The Beggars'' of 1568, one of the artist's last paintings.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Fight Between Carnival and Lent」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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