Virginal
Virginal, Joannes Grauwels, Antwerp, ca. 1580, inv. 2929
Virginal (detail)
Virginal, Joannes Grauwels, Antwerp, ca. 1580, inv. 2929
Virginal (detail)
Virginal, Joannes Grauwels, Antwerp, ca. 1580, inv. 2929
With its grisaille painting reminiscent of Pieter Bruegel’s scenes of peasant festivities, the lid of Johannes Grauwels’ virginal dating to around 1580 deserves special attention.
In the centre of the painting, a bagpipe player is sitting on the branch of a tree, accompanying a group of dancers. A married couple with a child is approaching the merry party. Rowdy tipplers are seated round a barrel to the left of the tree, two of them vomiting. A notable feature is the highly refined detail of the painting of the Flemish-gabled houses in the background that include an inn with a fluttering banner. In front of a fence a duel is being fought and to the left of that is a depiction of St. George slaying the dragon, while a crowd looks on.
There is often a moral hidden in such depictions that is intended to face the viewer with his own faults, such as greed (the tipplers), anger (the duellers) and lasciviousness (the dancing couples). The bagpipe of the figure in the tree probably has a phallic significance.