The Large Wedding Feast (1560): Art, History and Details

The Large Wedding Feast (1560) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Peeter van der Borcht (Netherlandish, c. 1535–1608).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This 1560 etching by Antwerp artist Peeter van der Borcht is an important part of a tradition depicting peasant fairs, customs, and scenes of daily life with origins in the Low Countries in the 16th century. The protagonist of this expansive scene is the bride, who is seated at the table in the center of the composition. She sits with her arms crossed, wearing a placid expression. There is no food or drink at her table despite the plentiful victuals around her. According to Netherlandish custom, the bride was not permitted to eat or drink until the arrival of the bridegroom, which traditionally took place in the evening.

Object facts

• Title: The Large Wedding Feast
• Date: 1560
• Creator attribution: Peeter van der Borcht (Netherlandish, c. 1535–1608)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Print
• Technique: etching with engraving
• Dimensions: Image: 36.4 x 50.7 cm (14 5/16 x 19 15/16 in.); Sheet: 36.4 x 50.7 cm (14 5/16 x 19 15/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Etching
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2021.143

A detail from the museum

Just as today, the couple receives gifts from wedding guests; here, a clerk at the table counts coins while a line of guests wait their turn to present gifts including a salt cellar, stool, candleholder, stockpot, butter churn, distaff, bellows, tongs, and pots.

Collection credit

Carole W. and Charles B. Rosenblatt Endowment Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Miedema, Hessel. “Feestende Boeren - Lachende Dorpers. Bij Twee Recente Aanwinsten van Het Rijksprentenkabinet.” Bulletin van Het Rijksmuseum 29, no. 4 (1981): 191–213.
• Paul Vandenbroeck: « Verbeeck's Peasant Weddings: A Study of Iconography and Social Function » in Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 14, no. 2 (1984).
• Jongh, E. de, and Ger Luijten. Mirror of everyday life: genreprints in the Netherlands, 1550-1700. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 1997.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.