Bruegel in Black and White review – a brief but harrowing encounter

Courtauld Gallery, London
While the best-loved paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder overflow with life, there are no cakes and ale in these images drawn from his darker side

It will soon be Fat Tuesday. Eggy batter will sizzle heartily in pans across the land. One of modern Britain’s last lovely echoes of pre-industrial life, our pancake festival on the last Tuesday before Lent is a homely relic of the great carnivals that once rocked every village in Europe, releasing laughter and communal joy, and flipping the whole world upside down.

The art of Pieter Bruegel the Elder preserves that lost age of carnival in plump rollicking pictures that overflow with life. In his 1567 painting The Battle Between Carnival and Lent, a village square explodes into subversive fun. Masked revellers, dice players, dancers and drinkers let it all hang out. Broken eggshells litter the ground as a cook heats up an iron skillet to cook the next batch of pancakes. Bruegel is riotous, generous, and Shakespearean in his appetite for the whole of human life.

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