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# The sixteenth-century Flemish painting "The Legend of the Baker of Eeklo" tells a diverting folk tale about the inhabitants of the town of Eeklo, dissatisfied with their faces or their wits, who turned to the local baker for correction
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/flamandskaia-kartina-xvi-veka-legenda-o-pekare-iz-eklo-povestvuet-o-zanimatelnom-narodnom-predanii-o-zhiteliakh-gorodka-eklo-nedovolnykh-svoem-litsom-ili-umom-i-obrativshikhsia-k-mestno/
- Published: 2026-04-01T06:34:29.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:26:26.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Ethnography, Humour

But for the correction to be made, the unsuccessful head first had to be severed from the body, washed, dusted with flour and basted with egg yolks, and then slid into the oven on a baker's peel. In the meantime, a cabbage head was set in place of the defective one.

When the head was done, it was fitted back onto the old body. If the baking went well, the person really did grow handsomer and cleverer; but if something went amiss, say the head was overbaked or underdone, the person turned out a fool, capricious, nervous or simply ugly.

The original painting was made by Cornelis van Dalem and Jan van Wechelen, but the work we know is a copy by an unknown artist

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_20245@01-04-2026_09-34-29.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_20246@01-04-2026_09-34-29.jpg)

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![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_20250@01-04-2026_09-34-29.jpg)