The Land of Cockaigne

Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'The Land of Cockaigne' (1567) paints the medieval folk fable of a peasant paradise where everything is given without work. A pig runs about with the carving knife already lodged in its back, roast geese walk to the platter of their own accord, boiled eggs sprout legs, and the roof is shingled with pies. At the centre a soldier, a peasant, and a clerk sleep in bloated stupor beneath a table shaped like a cartwheel. The picture is a pointed 16th-century moral warning against gluttony and sloth, painted within the Dutch Reformation's preaching tradition. It hangs in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

Exhibition Venue

Pinakothek Museums Munich

Munich, Germany