Public domain
The Egg Dance
From the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
At right, in this brothel, a young man does an egg dance to the music of a bagpiper. While dancing, he had to roll an egg within a chalk circle – without it breaking – and to cover it with a wooden bowl. This ‘pointless’ amusement, along with the dissolute behaviour of the other figures, served as a moral warning against debauchery.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineDe eierdans. 1552. Pieter Aertsen. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Public domain.
