The Garden of Earthly Delights by Jheronimus Bosch:
An Online Interactive Adventure
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Brueghel (also spelled Bruegel) c. 1525 – 9 September 1569- was a Flemish Renaissance painter and print-maker. Breughel was born the Dutch town of Breda. He apprenticed with Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter Mayken he later married. He dropped the "h" is his name in order to differentiate himself from a dynastic family of painters also named "Brueghel". He lived for a period in Antwerp before touring and studying in France and Italy. He was accepted into the painters guild (The Guild of St. Luke) in 1551 and permanently settled in Brussels 10 years later.
Brueghel began his career as something of an heir to the fantastic paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch was already dead by the time Brueghel had become a mature artist, but his work remained highly popular and there were any number of copies and forgeries. Demand for Bosch-like paintings and prints continued well into the 16th century. Hieronymus Cock, the great Flemish printer and publisher fed this demand with prints after Bosch and in the manner of Bosch. Brueghel was among the many artists who provided drawings for Cock to have engraved, and his print Big Fish Eat Little Fish was actually published attributed to Bosch... no doubt in hope for a larger audience.
Brueghel almost certainly knew of Bosch' Garden of Earthly Delights (which remained in the Netherlands until 1566) either through the original, or through one of the dozens of known copies. A good many of Brueghel's engravings employed themes and imagery similar to those of Bosch.
Like Bosch, Brueghel's paintings and engravings were commonly set among lush landscapes seen from a "bird's eye view" that were teeming with endless tiny figures... quite often engaged in all sorts of dirty deeds... all laden in symbolism and allegory. The meaning of Big Fish Eat Smaller Fish is not too difficult to discern but prints such as the suite of The Seven Deadly Sins/Vices and the Last Judgment are full of bizarre Bosch-like details that leave the viewer puzzling for hours.
Brueghel also produced a number of paintings that following in the fantastic tradition of Bosch. Among my favorites (already explored in some depth earlier in this blog) are The Fall of the Rebel Angels:
As the Rebel Angels are driven from heaven by those Angels loyal to God, they already have begun to metamorphose into strange creatures... amphibians, fish, one toad-like creature that opens his own belly to reveal his guts and eggs... and another fallen angel... the most beautiful... perhaps Lucifer himself... is blessed with the lovely wings of a butterfly. As with the "Hell" panel of Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights the viewer can virtually hear the cacophonous noise of this scene as the battle is accompanied by yelling, howling, horns blaring and bleating, the drone of a hurdy-gurdy, and the pluck of various stringed instruments. Of course Bosch takes this even further, transforming the instruments that in earthly life were the source of profane and lurid music, into the very means of torture for sinners in his hellish orchestra:
Another favorite painting by Brueghel in the tradition of Bosch is the painting entitled Dulle Griet (or "Mad Meg"). The painting portrays a tale from Flemish folklore, of a woman so driven by desire for riches that she leads an army of women in a raid on hell itself. The painting is an obvious comment on the sin of avarice.
Perhaps the greatest of Brueghel's paintings in the realm of Bosch-inspired fantasy is the harrowing Triumph of Death. In this painting, death is unrelenting and unforgiving. He shows no mercy and no concern for age, wealth, or rank. Women, children, kings, knights, Popes, court jesters, musicians, mothers, lovers... death comes for all... and all are ferried away to the scorched landscape of the dead.
As much as Brueghel may have owed to the fantastic examples of Heironymus Bosch, he was no mere follower of Bosch. Brueghel worked in a far broader range. Beyond his fantastic paintings and engravings, Brueghel also created any number of rather traditional religious images. In the painting, The Procession to Calvary, Christ carrying the cross is almost lost in a landscape teeming with people engaged in all sorts of activities. We see lovers, gamblers, robbers, murderers, soldiers... and in the foreground, the Virgin, Magdalene, and St. Matthew in mourning.
Another favorite of mine is The Tower of Babel:
Brueghel's Tower of Babel makes clear the wages of vanity. The construction project has clearly begun well enough... as can be seen from the left side of the tower... but it has soon slipped into decline and collapse. What is the reason for this? In the foreground we see the king and his fawning aristocratic minions visiting the construction site... not unlike today's politicians who never lose the chance to have their photo taken at the opening of a new school building or interstate highway.
As a result of the visit, all the work has ceased as the laborers prostrate themselves before the visiting dignitaries. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity."
Two of the most stunning examples of Brueghel's religious works are the late, monochromatic paintings, Christ and the Adulteress, and The Death of the Virgin which employ an absolutely audacious use of chiaroscuro... or light/dark contrast not seen again until Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Adam Elseheimer and the Baroque.
Brueghel was also an early "realist"... documenting the socio-political realities of the time. A good number of his paintings have a subtle political content hidden beneath what initially appears as little more than a painting of a traditional Biblical narrative. In the painting, John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness...
...we are presented with the image of a crowd gathered around to hear John the Baptist. The word of God is being brought to the whole world as in the foreground we see individuals who are Turkish, Arabic... even Chinese. Brueghel's knowledge of such foreign dress undoubtedly came from observation of immigrants, sailors, traders, and merchants who arrived in the ports of the Netherlands at the time of burgeoning trade with the East. Even more intriguing, however, are the number of individuals in Protestant garb. At a time in which the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands had outlawed Protestantism and burned their churches, clandestine gatherings such as this in the forest were quite common. One cannot help but recognize that Brueghel is equating such illegal worship with that of nascent Christianity.
A more unnerving painting of socio-political commentary is that of The Massacre of the Innocents:
The theme of "The Massacre of the Innocents" was quite common in Renaissance painting... but there are details here that are quite unique. Brueghel sets the "massacre" in a snow-covered Netherlandish village. Soldiers carry out their murderous orders under the watchful eye of a battalion of Spanish armored knights. At the head of the battalion sits the brutal Duke of Alba, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands. Again, Brueghel seems to be equating the Biblical Massacre of the Innocents with the violence carried out against the Netherlands by their Spanish rulers.
In another painting, Brueghel frames the reality of the Netherlands in a manner that is almost a caricature... akin to the prints of Daumier. In the painting, Two Chained Monkeys the Netherlands... Brueghel's home... has become a prison... and the native population but monkeys performing for the entertainment of their rulers... while just outside the window the ships in the harbor beckon to the open sea and freedom.
The Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska, composed a poem on Brueghel's painting alluding to the realities of Poland after the 1956 workers riots led to a brutal crackdown by Stalin:
Two Monkeys by Brueghel
I keep dreaming of my graduation exam: in a window sit two chained monkeys, beyond the window floats the sky, and the sea splashes.
I am taking an exam on the history of mankind: I stammer and flounder.
One monkey, eyes fixed upon me, listens ironically, the other seems to be dozing-- and when silence follows a question, he prompts me with a soft jingling of the chain.
trans. from the Polish by Magnus Kryski
Another "realist" genre that Brueghel excelled in was that of the "illustration" of the everyday lives of the peasants with whom he lived. In Children's Games, the artist observed and accurately recorded children playing some hundred different games:
In Brueghel's drawings and paintings of Kermesse, an annual Netherlandish feast, the artist captures the jovial... and somewhat drunken comings and goings:
In the painting, Kermesse/Peasant Dance, we can almost hear the heavy klompen footed dancing and the sound of the bagpipes... while lovers kiss in the background and drinkers slip into pleasant inebriation:
The Peasant Wedding captures many of the same elements as The Peasant Dance... although it is perhaps a little less rowdy and a little more ordered:
Yet Brueghel is capable of going to the opposite end of the spectrum with his painting The Feast of Fools... which is essentially a drunken brawl or orgy taking place on the final day of Carnival... before the beginning of the Lenten Season:
One of my favorite of Brueghel's "Peasant Paintings" is that of The Peasant and the Tree Nester.
In this painting we are presented with Brueghel's eye for irony and comic details. A "peasant" looks out at us, the viewer, with a bemused smile and points to the foolish "tree nester" who has lost his hat and appears about to fall from the tree in his eager efforts to get at the eggs in the tree he has climbed. But the "peasant" is not immune from foolishness himself. In his keen desire to point out the foolishness of another, he, himself is about to stumble headfirst into a creek.
Brueghel's observant eye and ability to capture the foibles and foolishness of others was not shunned when looking at himself. One of the most marvelous of old master drawings is surely that of Brueghel's Artist and "Critic".
Brueghel presents an image of the artist... himself... as a wild-haired, dour looking old man... almost a precursor of the ideal of the Bohemian artist... standing at his easel... brush in hand. Peering over his shoulder... and squinting through his glasses (how good can his visual acumen and judgment of art be?)... is a potential costumer... reaching into his purse for his money. Surely there has never been a better rendering of the ambivalent relationship between the artist and patron.
Along the lines of Brueghel's astute observations of the everyday realities of peasant life are his paintings that essentially "illustrate" popular peasant sayings/folk tales/fables, etc... The Land of Cockaigne illustrates a mythical land of plenty that dates back to the middle ages:
Beneath a roof made of pies a soldier waits with his mouth open for the food to just fly right in. A soft boiled egg wanders about looking for any hungry individual. A roast duck lies down on the serving platter while a roast pig runs about... a knife in its side to allow anyone to carve up a slide of ham.
The theme is echoed in an American Folk Song from the Great Depression: The Big Rock Candy Mountain:
In Brueghel's painting, this fantasy land of endless food and no work becomes an allegory on the dangers of Sloth and Gluttony. The three men lay sprawled out beneath a table strewn with a half-eaten feast: a clergyman/scholar, a knight, and a farmer, clearly represent the three stations of Renaissance life: The Church, The Aristocracy, and The Peasants. Gluttony and Sloth have diverted all three from their duties... from the harvest, from soldiering, from their role as spiritual leaders. To the right... through the clouds... another new members arrives to the ever-growing Land of Cockaigne.
The Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind is a rather straight-forward, literal illustration of the parable of blindly following after leaders who are no less blind themselves... and one which continues to resonate into the present.
Perhaps the most marvelous of Brueghel's paintings of parables and fables is the great Netherlandish Parables:
Like a good many of Brueghel's paintings, The Netherlandish Parables seems initially to be far simpler... far more straight-forward than it really is. On first sight, one might presume that what the painter has offered is an every-day view of the common comings and goings in a Netherlandish village of the time. But in actuality... nearly every figure is a literal rendering or illustration of a well-known Flemish Proverb: "He has an eel by the tail." (Not unlike our "Tiger by the tail") "One has to crawl to make one's way through the world" "He holds the world on the tip of his thumb." "They're so close they shit out of the same hole." "He runs his head against a brick wall." etc... There are over 100 identified proverbs in the painting... and yet the overall appearance is of complete naturalism.
For those interested, the majority of the proverbs have been identified on the Wikipedia page:
Perhaps the most important contribution that Brueghel made to painting was that of legitimizing the landscape as a subject matter. Like Bosh, he stages most of his paintings within a landscape viewed from above... from a "bird's eye view". Even within paintings that have a central subject matter beyond the landscape, his landscapes remain a key element and exhibit an acute observation of the details of the real world that is astounding. These were clearly the result of endless life studies... some of which have survived.
Brueghel's study of beekeepers presents an almost "surreal" image... yet one wholly rooted in reality. In spite of the fact that the Netherlandish painters lacked the formal understanding of anatomy, physiology, and perspective that the Italian masters such as Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, etc... displayed, Brueghel still exhibits an unprecedented grasp of foreshortening, the body seen in a broad array of poses... at work and at play... especially in his study of harvesters... and the illusion of receding space as conveyed through scale and aerial perspective.
From his earliest years of travels in Italy Brueghel was obsessed with the landscape as can be seen in this early painting of The Harbor of Naples:
Brueghel is one of the earliest Northern artists by whom we have a good number of drawings. A great many of theses... marvelous sepia ink on paper drawings that suggest some Asian drawings as well as works by Brueghel's Flemish and Dutch heirs, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh... are landscapes. A good many of these landscapes of mountain passes are clearly from Brueghel's youthful travels through Italy:
One of the finest of Brueghel's drawings (immediately above) was turned into one of the artist's first prints... and in this instance the print is especially noted for its having been engraved by Brueghel himself. The exquisite tenuous mark-making (there are aspects that suggest dry-point) of this print stands out from all the other prints that were more mechanically rendered by professional engravers:
No artist surpassed Brueghel in his ability to capture not only the details of the landscape... but the sense of atmosphere and color. The teal-pewter-gray sky and the black figures isolated against the stark white snow in Hunters in the Snow perfectly conveys the frozen atmosphere of February.
In the painting The Harvesters/August one can literally feel the heavy oppressive humid atmosphere that has led a number of the farm-workers to collapse with exhaustion.
In Haymaking/July(?) we are presented with a glorious summer day. I have always thought it appears more like June than July. The weather is not yet too hot as conveyed by the cool colors, the clothing, and the attitudes of the laborers. While hay is gathered in the fields, girls haul baskets of fruit... berries and cherries... off to market.
Peter Paul Rubens, the great Flemish Baroque painter, was Brueghel's greatest heir, and the artist most instrumental in synthesizing the art of the North (The Netherlands and Germany) and the South (Italy). He was also the artist most instrumental in the development and spread of the genre of the landscape outside of the Netherlands... especially to France and England. Rubens was a great admirer of Breughel and deeply indebted to his example. He owned several of Brueghel's paintings and was a close friend and co-worker with Brueghel's son, Jan. Elements of Brueghel's landscapes pop up again and again in the later artist's work:
One can draw a direct line of influence from Brueghel to Rubens...
...to the "Little Dutch Masters"...
... to the French Rococo...
on through Gainsborough...
Constable...
Turner...
and the entire English landscape tradition... on through Monet and Impressionism:
One of the most intriguing of Brueghel's landscapes is that which is quite possibly the artist's last paintings as well: The Magpie on the Gallows:
Gallows were a common site in the war-torn Netherlands as they struggled against oppressive Spanish rule. But here we have the gallows in the most beautiful... even idyllic of landscapes. Beneath it peasants dance joyfully. Clearly the painting suggest the co-existence of life and death. Like Poussin's painting "Et in Arcadia ego"... even in paradise we shall find death...
The fact that Brueghel left this one painting to his wife in his will has led others to surmise that the image of the magpie (a symbol of gossip) on the gallows was something of a warning to his wife against excessive loose talk after he was gone.