The King Drinks

Jordaens painted The King Drinks around 1640, another treatment of the Twelfth Night celebration in which finding the bean hidden in the cake crowns a 'king' for the evening. He returned to this subject repeatedly throughout his career, each version exploring new compositional arrangements for the boisterous company gathered around the feast table. The subject's combination of festive excess, generational span — old and young together — and a carnivalesque moral undertone about the transience of fortune suited both Jordaens's artistic temperament and the taste of his bourgeois clientele. The painting exemplifies the Flemish tradition of moralizing through festivity, giving genre painting both decorative pleasure and ethical content simultaneously.

The crowded composition captures the raucous energy of the celebration with figures shouting, drinking, and gesturing. Jordaens' warm, rich palette and vigorous brushwork create an overwhelming sense of festive abandon.