The Feast of the Bean King

Jordaens’s energetic compositions would be inconceivable without the paintings of Rubens to which the younger artist sometimes contributed. But he combined the influence of his mentor with a selection of burlesque, coarse and common physiognomies (showing the influence of the Netherlands successors to Caravaggio in both this and the usually close-up view) to create his own, unmistakeable style. In presenting “laughing but didactic” contents, Jordaens is also assimilating modern Dutch influences: in the Protestant Netherlands moralising genrepaintings – always, however, in small format – were much more highly esteemed than in Catholic Flanders. Raised above their everyday cares and united in song, costumes, drunkenness and gluttony, the revellers are pressed into the smallest conceivable space. Several days earlier, at Epiphany (Twelfth Night), they had bought slips of paper with the names of various court offices, and to choose the “king” a cake had been made containing a single bean. The guest who found the bean in his piece became the king of the feast. But Jordaens does not leave the choice of the protagonist to chance: the oldest participant is wearing the crown, and he has chosen the prettiest woman as his “queen”. This touches on a theme that had been widespread since the 16th century but was usually depicted in isolation: the “odd couple”. Now the rest of the citizens are being assigned their respective roles. On the right, above the king’s massive head, the “royal taster” is performing his duties. The “doctor” in the left foreground is relieving himself in dangerous proximity to the food. In the foreground is the poorly illuminated but powerful figure of the “equerry”, who has already lost his slip of paper. His body has an important function in the composition: it stabilises and provides rhythm to the other figures in the painting, who are depicted with slight foreshortening. Discreetly in the background is an inscription on a cartouche: “nil similusinsano quam ebrius” – “nothing is more like a madman than a drunk”. © Cäcilia Bischoff, Masterpieces of the Picture Gallery. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2010