Christmas - the Wassail Bowl 

Curator: This engraving is entitled "Christmas - the Wassail Bowl". It's attributed to Robert William Buss and depicts a rather raucous festive gathering. Editor: Oh, it's quite the scene, isn't it? Overflowing, almost dizzying! You can practically smell the potent brew and hear the din of revelry. It’s like looking into a bubbling cauldron of holiday spirit… with a touch of chaotic excess, naturally. Curator: It's true, there is a very fine line between celebration and debauchery being tread. The wassail bowl, of course, was central to yuletide traditions. Sharing this spiced ale from a communal bowl was a gesture of goodwill. Editor: A gesture? Looks like an excuse for a knees-up! That tipsy woman swooning onto the table tells me this 'goodwill' had some serious ABV. But honestly, I find this fascinating; It feels utterly uninhibited and authentically human, far from those stuffy portraits. Curator: That "authentic" quality speaks to the tradition of genre painting which depicted everyday life and customs. We see elements of Romanticism, too. These group portraits provided glimpses into social practices and, in some ways, legitimized these holidays. Think about the narratives this single image constructs! Editor: Mmm, I get your take. Legitimize sounds like an administrative act to me, however. But here, Buss lets us be voyeurs! Like spying into a bygone, bustling Christmas. What else could one possibly desire? Curator: Indeed. What’s striking to me is how it freezes an instance of communal engagement, giving later audiences access to the evolution of customs that still resound. The public role art holds means it has to freeze things in a time-capsule in an easily consumable fashion. Editor: Ah, so well put. We are offered, rather forcibly perhaps, a warm and fuzzy glow with a nudge-nudge-wink-wink sensibility regarding their holiday habits, aren’t we? Now I wonder what our modern interpretations are... Curator: And therein lies a bridge between eras; "Christmas - the Wassail Bowl", beyond artistic elements, becomes an investigation into what stays similar… and what transforms across generational festivity. Editor: Makes one reflect how "tradition," even at its merriest and messiest, always gets revisited, redefined, and remembered, and never really goes out of fashion in the slightest.