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In a seventeenth-century living-room, a cheerful company has assembled to enjoy the so-called 'Bean Feast on Twelfth Night' (the feast of the Epiphany, 6 January). In accordance with an old and widespread custom that still survives in many places, a bean was baked into a cake and the person who found it in their portion was given a paper crown and made king for the night, with the power to appoint companions to various positions, such as that of court jester. And whenever the king raised his glass, the others did the same, shouting out 'The king drinks!'
Although Pieter Brueghel the Younger normally used his father's work as a source for his designs, in this case the composition is probably based upon a lost composition by his father's contemporary Marten van Cleve.
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