The King Drinks 1766

Jacques Claude Danzel captured this rowdy scene with engraving. The revelry centers around the table, but the man standing on top of it, holding a puppet, draws our eye. He's the Lord of Misrule, a figure found in carnivals since the Middle Ages. This tradition has roots in the Roman Saturnalia, where social hierarchies were inverted, and joy reigned. But there is another layer to unpack: Consider the puppet. What do you see? Is it a phallus? Is it death? This symbol, the puppet, echoes pagan fertility rites, where the divine phallus ensured nature's rebirth, yet the figure on top of the table carries within its form a premonition of death that makes us feel the temporality of our lives. The "King Drinks" ritual, the figure with the puppet, embodies the duality of life and death, pleasure and mortality. The emotional intensity of this image, felt on a deep, subconscious level, is carried through time, transcending generations.