Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (detail) – (Tiziano Vecellio (Titian)) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Tiziano Vecellio (Titian)

Topic: Temples Virgin Temples

Date: 1534

Museum: Gallerie dell'Accademia (Venice, Italy)

Technique: Oil On Canvas

In a seventeenth-century living-room, a cheerful company has assembled to enjoy the so-called 'Bean Feast on Twelfth Night' (the feast of the Epiphany, 6 January). In accordance with an old and widespread custom that still survives in many places, a bean was baked into a cake and the person who found it in their portion was given a paper crown and made king for the night, with the power to appoint companions to various positions, such as that of court jester. And whenever the king raised his glass, the others did the same, shouting out 'The king drinks!'In Jan Steen's picture, men, women and children form a cheerful crowd around the dining table, some in the fashionable middle-class dress of the day, while some are wearing different household utensils on their heads. Wearing the king's crown is a boy who stands on a small table, being helped to drain his glass by an elderly woman beside him. The jester, identified by the inscribed scrap of paper in his cap, is on his feet in front of the table, providing a rhythmical accompaniment with an earthenware pot and a small stick. On the far left, an older man with a metal funnel on his head has made a fiddle and bow from a ladle and a roasting spit, while someone else at the back is playing a real violin. On the opposite side, clearly keeping their distance, is a more genteel group gathered around a preacher and taking no part in the merriment. The painter and his wife, however, have joined in the disorderly celebration, being seated at table in the middle of the painting.