Unraveling 'The Fight Between Carnival and Lent'

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting of 1559, 'The Fight Between Carnival And Lent'. Created in Antwerp at a time of religious tension between Catholics and Protestants, the painting is rich in detail and seems ripe for interpretation. But Bruegel is notoriously difficult to interpret. His art seems to reject the preoccupations of the Italian Renaissance, drawing instead on techniques associated with the new technology of the 16th century, print. Was Bruegel using his art to comment on the controversies of his day? If so, what comment was he making?

CONTRIBUTORS

Louise Milne, Lecturer in Visual Culture in the School of Art at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University

Jeanne Nuechterlein, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History of Art, University of York

Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History and Head of the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London

Producer: Luke Mulhall.