DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44747#0031
A Proposal for
Reconsidering Bruegel:
an Integrated View of his Historical and
Cultural Milieu *
Yoko Mori
Professor of art history, Meiji University
I -The Golden Age of Proverbs
II -Bruegel’s Children’s Game and the
Renaissance Concept of Children’s Play
III -The World of the Seasons
IV -The Allegory of Foxtails and Magpies
V -The Problem of Bruegel’s Faith
41
Almost ninety years have passed since Bruegel became a major
presence in art history with the first important study by De Loo
and Bastelaer in 1907.In retrospect, the Bruegel studies produced
during this period can be divided into three main tendencies. There
is the humanistic interpretation of De Tolnay,2) Stridbeck,3) and
Grossmann,4^ for whom Bruegel’s art portrays human folly, deceit,
vanity, and an upside-down world. A sociological tendency is used
by Auner5) and Claessens,6) who see veiled allusions to the oppres-
sive Spanish rule of Charles V and Phillip II in Bruegel’s images.
The third tendency is represented by Marijnissen7) and Gibson,8)
who look for the meaning of Bruegel’s subject matter in contem-
porary Flemish chronicles, popular plays put on by Flemish chambers
of rhetoric CPederijkers\ and popular literature. The above men-
tioned scholars sometimes combined these three tendencies in their
interpretations, but I have classified them according to their main
assertion.
In my own books and articles, I have called attention to inscrip-
tions on prints made from preparatory drawings by Bruegel and other
artists of the time and various contemporary literary sources, explor-
ing the moral outlook and ways of thinking reflected in these writings
and investigating the level of contemporary interest in the themes
employed. With this approach, I have identified both the traditional
and innovative qualities in specific images depicted by Bruegel and
examined their relationship to the new spirit of the age as repre-
sented in humanist writing and popular culture.9) I have been par-
ticularly critical of views which, as I see it, exaggerate the influence
on Bruegel’s art of political events, i.e., the rule of the Netherlands
by Charles V and Phillip II, and the religious ferment caused by the
Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century. These interpretations force
Bruegel into too narrow a frame of reference and neglect other aspects
of his art. Sufficient attention must be paid to the extraordinary
draftsmanship he exhibits in the immense, panoramic landscapes
introduced to religious subject matter; his innovative presentation of
the customs and feasts of the peasantry as subject matter; and his
brilliant applications of contemporary cultural tendencies, for exam-
ple, the special regard for proverbs, reflected in the Netherlandish
Proverbs, and the Renaissance concept of children’s play, as seen in
Children’s Games. In this article, I would like to introduce some
new pictorial and literary sources which shed new light on particular
Bruegel paintings which I believe have been misunderstood or incor-
rectly interpreted.
Reconsidering Bruegel:
an Integrated View of his Historical and
Cultural Milieu *
Yoko Mori
Professor of art history, Meiji University
I -The Golden Age of Proverbs
II -Bruegel’s Children’s Game and the
Renaissance Concept of Children’s Play
III -The World of the Seasons
IV -The Allegory of Foxtails and Magpies
V -The Problem of Bruegel’s Faith
41
Almost ninety years have passed since Bruegel became a major
presence in art history with the first important study by De Loo
and Bastelaer in 1907.In retrospect, the Bruegel studies produced
during this period can be divided into three main tendencies. There
is the humanistic interpretation of De Tolnay,2) Stridbeck,3) and
Grossmann,4^ for whom Bruegel’s art portrays human folly, deceit,
vanity, and an upside-down world. A sociological tendency is used
by Auner5) and Claessens,6) who see veiled allusions to the oppres-
sive Spanish rule of Charles V and Phillip II in Bruegel’s images.
The third tendency is represented by Marijnissen7) and Gibson,8)
who look for the meaning of Bruegel’s subject matter in contem-
porary Flemish chronicles, popular plays put on by Flemish chambers
of rhetoric CPederijkers\ and popular literature. The above men-
tioned scholars sometimes combined these three tendencies in their
interpretations, but I have classified them according to their main
assertion.
In my own books and articles, I have called attention to inscrip-
tions on prints made from preparatory drawings by Bruegel and other
artists of the time and various contemporary literary sources, explor-
ing the moral outlook and ways of thinking reflected in these writings
and investigating the level of contemporary interest in the themes
employed. With this approach, I have identified both the traditional
and innovative qualities in specific images depicted by Bruegel and
examined their relationship to the new spirit of the age as repre-
sented in humanist writing and popular culture.9) I have been par-
ticularly critical of views which, as I see it, exaggerate the influence
on Bruegel’s art of political events, i.e., the rule of the Netherlands
by Charles V and Phillip II, and the religious ferment caused by the
Reformation in the mid-sixteenth century. These interpretations force
Bruegel into too narrow a frame of reference and neglect other aspects
of his art. Sufficient attention must be paid to the extraordinary
draftsmanship he exhibits in the immense, panoramic landscapes
introduced to religious subject matter; his innovative presentation of
the customs and feasts of the peasantry as subject matter; and his
brilliant applications of contemporary cultural tendencies, for exam-
ple, the special regard for proverbs, reflected in the Netherlandish
Proverbs, and the Renaissance concept of children’s play, as seen in
Children’s Games. In this article, I would like to introduce some
new pictorial and literary sources which shed new light on particular
Bruegel paintings which I believe have been misunderstood or incor-
rectly interpreted.