WHY SHOULD "FANATICS" SUDDENLY ATTACK PEACEFUL CRAFTSPEOPLE AND SHOPKEEPERS?
Imagining the interwoven population. The paintings' vibrancy is Flemish, but the activities could have been anywhere:
- The narrow streets must have been as crowded and convivial as this open space, with shops selling wares through stands that gave directly onto them, processions, games, labor of all kinds and the Church part of daily life.
The Fight between Carnaval and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559 / zoom; enlarge the figures with your mouse.
- Processions: color, music and onlookers bring the town together:
Window at Saint-Etienne du Mont, 19th century / zoom (please click and scroll down).
For more processions, please click
- Guilds: professional organizations that set standards, prices, number of apprentices and other rules and have their rituals and celebrations. Craftspeople working within the city were obliged to belong to them.
Banquet of the Crossbowmen's Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Munster by Bartholomeus van der Helst, 1648 / zoom
- Saints: Interwoven into daily life. Days of the year ("Saint Valentine's Day") and streets are named after them.
- PHOTO AND SCAN
- They often live outside the city walls, stick together, standing out by their sober dress, refusal to participate in Catholic -- that is, local -- events.
- They respect the saints, but do not worship them. Yet for Catholics saints are so much part of daily life that their
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