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Pieter Brueghel the Elder
The Peasant Wedding, 1568, 124 cm X 164 cm, oil on wood, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. SUBJECT: Personal Function, Aesthetic Expression. SUBJECT MATTER: Peasants at a wedding banquet. This painting describes the relationships and emotions between the people through colors, shapes, and directions, while also showing uniqueness in each individual. Brueghel uses sameness and difference working together for one purpose. The two men in the foreground work together carrying food on a wooden door. One man is wearing a green shirt and a red hat while the other is wearing a red shirt and a green hat. The audience has the sense that both men are valued equally. We also see uniqueness in the bride through Brueghel's use of color. She is seated at the table, framed by the green cloth on the wall. Her skin and clothing contain all of the colors used in the painting. Unlike her, Brueghel did not make groom's locations obvious. This has always been the mystery of this painting. At this time period, the groom helped serve the wife's family, so he might be the man on the left pooring a drink or one of the men carrying the door. Other relationships include the rectangular shapes of the green cloth and the window, and both the bride and the little girl on the floor wear peacock feathers (the bride's are tiny). Although the people in this painting may be poor, the warm textures and colors create a sense of happiness, which makes the work aesthetically pleasing to look at.
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