Pieter Bruegel and the Art of Laughter - AAAARG.ORG

ustic revels 81
ily, were especially zealous in acquiring seigneuries and the titles that came
with them. The eldest, Gaspar, elevated in 1564 to treasurer general of
the Netherlands, was heer of Grobbendonck (or Grobbendoncq ), a
seigneury he inherited from his father, who had purchased it in 1545.
Through purchases of his own, Caspar was also the heer of Meghen, Heyst,
and the village of Hingene, in Flanders. 24 As for Melchior, Guicciardini
describes him as “Seigneur of Rumpst, of Willebroeck, & other adjoining
villages.” 25
Of particular interest is the village of Hoboken, situated just outside
the gates of Antwerp and famous for its three annual festivals. One of
them is depicted in the Hoboken Kermis, a print published in 1559 (Fig. 46 )
after a drawing by Bruegel; the inscription below tells us in part that “the
peasants rejoice in such feasts, to dance and jump and to drink themselves
as drunk as beasts.” 26 Fluttering above the inn at lower right is a banner
inscribed “Dit is de Gulde van hoboken” (This is the Guild of Hoboken);
its crossed arrows identify the guild as that of the Handbow
Archers, which celebrated its feast on the day after Pentecost, generally
in May. 27 In the middle distance a procession enters the village church,
while the rest of the picture is given over to the festivities that follow,
including games, dancing, and drinking, as well as a performance in progress,
perhaps by the local rederijker chamber, on an open-air stage in the
background. A fool strolls by in the foreground, holding two children by
the hand. 28 The other two festivals commemorated the Birth of the Virgin
(3 May), patron of the parish church, and the Discovery of the True
Cross (8 September). 29
As it happens, Bruegel’s Hoboken Kermis was issued by Bartholomeus
de Mompere, who was manager of the schilderspand in these years and must
have had a good notion of what would appeal to the public. 30 In this case
he chose well, for Hoboken seems to have been a favorite spot for visitors
from Antwerp, and not only for its three festivals. This is suggested
by the mock “prognostications,” pamphlets of social satire in the form
of astrological New Year’s predictions, that have survived from the years
1560–62. They assure their readers that in the spring the roads to Hobo