1592ca. The Bagpipe Must Be Filled - etching - 24.4 x 17 cm - Washington DC, NGA

The print displays three peasants at a tavern table: a young man exerting effort to blow into a large bagpipe, a man clutching a stoneware pitcher, and a woman between them. A small dog sits attentively on the ground, while a rural landscape with a church spire is visible in the distance. The figures are rendered with thick, rhythmic engraved lines that emphasize the physical volume of the bagpipe and the coarse textures of the peasants' clothing.

As a central work by a leader of the Haarlem Mannerists, this genre scene likely functions as an allegory of the senses (Hearing and Taste) or a moralizing commentary on folly. In 16th-century visual language, the bagpipe was a common symbol for 'inflation'—the swelling of base desires, lust, or vanity—contrasting the 'low' life of the peasantry with the refined intellectual pursuits of the era.