Land of Cockaigne

The Land of Cockaigne, known in Dutch literature as Luilekkerland (country of the lazy and gluttonous), was described in very popular stories as a mythical place where there is no need to work, and where food and drink are so abundant that we need only open our mouths to take in what we desire. In this print, which accurately follows in reverse Bruegel's 1567 painting of the same title (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), three figures�a soldier, a farmer, and a clerk�are shown sleeping off the effects of their overindulgence, or waiting for more drink to imbibe�as the clerk does at left. It was probabl... Mehr ...