The King Drinks

The King Drinks is an oil on canvas painting by the Flemish Baroque artist Jacob Jordaens, dating from around 1640. It is now held by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The scene depicts a Twelfth Night celebration, a feast held on the eve of Epiphany in Flanders, when families and servants gathered together to share food, wine and merriment. According to custom, whoever found the bean hidden in a cake was crowned king of the evening with a paper crown. Jordaens chooses as this king the oldest person in the room, who in turn hands out mock court positions to the others. Above him, an inscription in Dutch says that it is good to stay at a free inn, or to be a guest when no payment is required, which is probably a jibe at freeloaders, since the king was the one who paid for the party. The composition is a swirl of heavily drinking revellers: at lower left a man spits or vomits, at the centre the king toasts surrounded by companions, behind him a bagpiper plays, and in the upper left corner another guest smokes a pipe. Jordaens painted several versions of this subject, and the work typifies the Dutch Baroque taste for lively scenes of excess and shared joy.

Painter

Jacob Jordaens

Date

1640

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

156 × 210 cm

Museum

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels-Capital Region

Genre

genre art

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