The Battle between Carnival and Lent by Brueghel. Click for full size.
A good description of this painting can be found here.
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Yet another art treasure to savour on CP&S.
“The right hand side of the painting is given over to Lent, whose part is played in the mock-contest by a gaunt and emaciated figure dressed up as a nun and wearing as her crown a beehive, symbol of the Church. Her lance is a wooden oven peel bearing a pair of herrings, while her followers brandish pretzels and dry bread, the traditionally meagre foodstuffs of Lent. “
A question: While the explanation provided is careful to describe it as “dressed as a nun,” the figure of “Lent” is clearly a man – with five o’clock shadow.. A man in drag, therefore. Possibly “gay”? Fine with Toad, but is this entirely appropriate? (Toad’s money is on the butcher in the joust.)
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Thank you Burro. Clearly the “Pinocchio Mass” is a longstanding Catholic Lenten tradition. So what was all the fuss about, eh?
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… the painting is a social commentary as well as a personal opinioin regarding moderation in all practices …made by the author and so lady lent is depicted with manly features…due in apart to the fact that too much fasting can cause depression, inferility, low blood sugar which can lead to hormone imbalances and eventually hirsutism (excesive hair gorwth)…..
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So, my friend and co-citizen, how’s the weather in Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanikwhich, in Cree, means: “where the wild trout are caught by fishing with hooks”, but then, you probably already knew that 🙂
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This hirsutism thingy interests me, though. Can you zoom in on an example of it in that (^) Brueghel painting?
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…lady lent with the five oclock shadow…and i am only familiar with the Gitche manitou or”great spirit” as it was the main native construction for the explanation of the numinous … the first christian missionairies were able to draw parallels between it and God and so more easily convert the aboriginals due to some common threads in vernacular…thanks
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God bless, jk72.
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