“This lively engraving plunges you into the raucous celebrations of Shrove Tuesday, a day of indulgence before Lent. Observe the detailed chaos and bizarre characters that fill every corner of this moralizing scene.”
A chaotic street scene unfolds in this engraving, capturing the boisterous energy of Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. A large, grotesque figure, seemingly a butcher, dominates the center, brandishing a spit with a pig's head. Around him, a crowd of revelers engages in various forms of merriment and excess, from dancing and feasting to brawling. Look closely at the details: a man in the foreground vomits into a pot, while others wear masks and play instruments. This print, made in 1567, reflects the satirical and moralizing tone common in Netherlandish art of the period, using humor and exaggeration to comment on human folly and indulgence before the solemnity of the Lenten fast. The dense composition and numerous small narratives invite a prolonged gaze, revealing new oddities with each look.
- Artist
- Hieronymus Bosch
- Medium
- Engraving on ivory laid paper
- Location
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 22.6 × 29 cm (8 15/16 × 11 7/16 in.)
- Collection
- Prints and Drawings
- Culture
- Flanders
- Credit line
- Charles Hack and the Hearn Family Trust Collection, purchased with funds provided by the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial, Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston, anonymous, and Suzanne Searle Dixon endowment funds
What to Notice
Five details hide in plain sight. Here’s where to look.
The central figure, a large man, holding a pig's head on a spit.
A man in the foreground, bent over, appears to be vomiting into a pot.
Figures in masks and unusual headwear throughout the crowd.
A couple dancing vigorously in the lower right, oblivious to the chaos.
1 more detail is waiting.
See all 5 in Art Whisper →Stand in front of it and listen
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Hieronymus Bosch
1450–1516 · Northern Low CountriesHieronymus Bosch, a Dutch painter from the Northern Low Countries, filled his oak panels with fantastic illustrations of religious concepts, from the Garden of Eden to macabre depictions of hell.
Further Works by Bosch
The Garden of Paradise
1495 · Art Institute of Chicago
The Conjurer (The Juggler)
1502
The Adoration of the Magi
Noordbrabants Museum
The Last Judgment
1478 · Art Institute of Chicago
Panel
1500 · Art Institute of Chicago
Saint Francis Heals the Grievous Wounds of One John at Lerida, plate two from Woodcuts from Books of the XVI Century
1512 · Art Institute of Chicago
Mercury Lulling to Sleep Argus, from Landscapes with Biblical and Mythological Scenes
Art Institute of Chicago
Mercury with Head of Argus in His Hand, from Landscapes with Biblical and Mythological Scenes
Art Institute of Chicago
