Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569) was the principal early exponent of large paintings of fairs, for example with his ‘Wedding Dance’ dated 1566, which is in the Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan (inv. no. 30.374, c. 1566, oil on panel, 119.4 × 157.5 cm). Most later works by Bruegel and his followers adopted the slightly higher viewpoint that Bruegel had developed for other motifs and which is also used in this painting. The works of Marten van Cleve played a key role in the dissemination of the pictorial ideas of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1636). While Brueghel's depictions of peasant life definitely inspired Marten van Cleve, this composition is clearly van Cleve’s own.