This article was originally a thread on social media, which is why it is formatted with lots of images and short responses.
The text is about the image below that paragraph.
Happy Shrove Tuesday.
For many it was/is a day when you try to use up all your food in preparation for Lent, which of course is a great excuse to make pancakes with everything and stuff yer faces.
So let’s take a closer look at a pancake related painting!
The Pancake Bakery, painted in 1560 by Pieter Aertsen, (1508 – 2 June 1575):
The earthenware pan shouldn’t be placed directly on fire/coal, so the baker is using an iron holder:
I’ve made pancakes like this!
Exactly like that, over a fire, with an earthenware pan, worked fine!
The white thing on the pretty plate is very likely lard although it could also be tallow, butter or cheese but lard is the most likely answer.
It’s the best material for frying pancakes:
Also note the firewood, these are not the big logs we often see in film/tv shows or even open air museums, at re-enactment events etc.
It’s just sticks, gathered by hand.
The logs we use today come from wood cut by chainsaws, hence their very practical shape.
But most people in the past would have very different looking fuel for their fires:
The woman on the right has detachable sleeves, I had those on my 15th century dress, you use pins or lave to keep them on.
Very handy, they either protect your pretty sleeves underneath or you can just quickly put them on to cover up your not so pretty sleeves underneath:
Always fun when the artist is a bit subtle about where they sign their art:
I love these little 3-legged stools, they are very practical and were quite popular. I always mention them when I spot them in art.
Here’s they are in ‘The Census at Bethlehem’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1566):
They were often used as sleds:
This bread looks delicious, I love that the little buns come attached, that’s the way I still buy them today:
I wonder what he is thinking about, staring into away from the family.
It probably means something.
Maybe I’m just imagining things, but he looks a bit melancholic, is he thinking about pancake days of the past, perhaps a memory of when he was little himself?
Or is he worried about the future?
We don’t know.
Everyone in the painting has this sort of forlorn look about them but this could also just be a style choice, the artist trying to portray these honest working class people as serious, pious, stoic.
Art historians have many theories, I guess they don’t really know for sure either.
Either way, nice tankard, maybe he’s just being drunk:
I wonder if perhaps the elderly man and woman are a couple, they’re to the left of the fire:
The people on the right also appear to be together, a young family.
Are they also related to the elderly couple?
I think so.
The older couple on the left, the younger on the right, perhaps two generations, the child making it three generations.
It’s a nice contrast:
Young dad is also fond of drinking:
Now that we know for sure is cheese and because it’s Dutch cheese, we know it’s good:
Mmmmmh waffles…. and more bread:
Pancakes!
They look so good.
Bread, cheese, butter, waffles, pancakes… I’m suddenly for some weird reason, feeling a bit very peckish.
I’m off to the kitchen, bye!
If you enjoyed this review, there are more here;
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