Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca 1525-1569), The Peasant Wedding, ca 1567, oil on wood, 114 x 164 cm.
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Peasant Wedding is one of Bruegel’s scenes he enjoyed painting in different aspects of peasant life. The wedding scene shows the bride in front of the green textile wall-hanging, with a paper-crown hung above her head. She is also wearing a crown on her head, and she is sitting passively, not participating in the eating or drinking taking place around her. The feast is in a barn in the summertime. Two sheaves of grain with a rake recalls the work that harvesting involves, and the hard life peasants have. The plates are carried on a door off its hinges. The main food was bread, porridge and soup. Other features of the scene include two pipers playing the bagpipe, a boy in the foreground licking a plate, and the wealthy man at the far right feeding a dog, having put bread on the bench.

There has been much conjecture as to the identity of the bridegroom. It has been argued that the groom is the man in the centre of the painting, wearing a dark coat and calling for more wine. It has also been suggested that according to contemporary custom, the groom is not seated at the table but may be the man pouring out beer. According to the same custom, the groom may be the young man wearing a red cap, handing out plates to his guests. (Source: Wikipedia.org)

For several details of the painting, see next pictures