DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44747#0041
IV-The Allegory or Foxtails and Magpies:
Doubts over Reading Political Content into Bruegel
It has been contended that Bruegel’s paintings contain allusions
to the oppression of the Netherlands under Spanish rule during his
time, for example, in Bob Claessens’s Unser Bruegel (1969)54^ and
Jean Francis’s Brueghel contre les pouvoirs (196 9)-55) I have grave
doubts about interpreting Bruegel’s work in terms of political events.
Here I will discuss the possible misreading involved in such an
interpretation using the example of the Cripples (1568, fig.24).
Delevoy (19 5 9),56' Claessens, and other scholars have seen this
work as a specific allusion to the events of April 5, 1566. This was
the day about three hundred nobles, led by Hendrik van Brederode
and Louis of Nassau, visited the palace of the Spanish regent of the
Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, and presented her with a petition
to Phillip II asking him to abolish the Inquisition and summon the
States-General. The members of this group attached foxtails to their
hats and spears as insignia. In response to their petition, Count
Berlaymont, part of Margaret’s coterie, muttered, “Ce n’est pas de
gueux" (they’re nothing but a bunch of beggars). The group sub-
sequently referred to itself as the Beggars and their rallying cry was
“Long live the Beggars!”
Bruegel’s cripples are gathered in a courtyard between two large
buildings, leaning on crutches and wearing hats which seem to
identify them as a king, a bishop, a knight, a burgher, and a peasant.
Each has a number of foxtails attached to his chest, and this has been
taken as evidence that they represent the Beggars’ party. However,
a cripple dressed in the same way had already appeared in Bruegel’s
Battle Between Carnival and Lent which was painted in 1559, seven
years before the incident in question. Therefore, it is unreasonable
to identify these cripples as members of the group of nobles organ-
ized in 1566. Also, the king, bishop, and peasant represented in the
Bruegel painting had no counterparts among the Beggars League.
There are Latin and Dutch inscriptions, possibly the words of
a contemporary humanist, on the back of the Cripples. The Dutch
reads, “Cripples. Hurrah. Success to your trade.” 57) What was this
trade? The figures in Cripples (Brussels, Mesees Royaux des Beaux -
Arts) by the Master of the Prodigal Son (born c.1530, active in the
1560s) and Cripples in the Marketplace by Marten van Cleve (1579,
fig.25) also wear foxtails just like those in the Bruegel picture. In
the Van Cleve drawing, they also wear hats suggesting various social
ranks, including those of king and bishop. The cripples in these works
are shown in the town square, supporting themselves with crutches
and performing for a crowd of onlookers, attempting to amuse them
or attract sympathy. They are accompanied by a healthy woman who
holds out a bowl and accepts alms. The woman in Bruegel’s painting,
performing the same role as the woman in the Van Cleve, has been,
however, identified with Regent Margaret, because Bruegel’s woman
turns her back to them. This is a rather strained explanation since the
woman is obviously part of the cripples’ group. It is too simplistic to
look at Bruegel’s depiction of cripples in isolation and conclude that
it is connected to a certain political event just because it took place
two years before the painting was executed. It is necessary to compare
it with works by other artists on the same theme in the same period
in order to judge what role is performed by the cripples.
It is also advisable to consider the proverbs related to foxtails in
the Dutch language.58^ Met den vossestaart strijken (to stroke with
a foxtail) means to use cunning to get things done, to flatter or curry
favor. Ergens met een vossestaart doorheen loopen (to walk about
with a foxtail) means to treat things lightly. Met een vossestaart
geeselen (to whip with a foxtail) means to punish lightly or per-
functorily, since striking someone with a foxtail doesn’t hurt.
Vossestaarten krijgen (getting foxtails) means to be cunning, to be
inclined to thievery. There was even a jail with the name “Foxtail”.
Thus, Bruegel’s cripples, although they do not appear in a real setting
like the public square in the pictures by the Master of the Prodigal
Son and Van Cleve, are wearing an attribute with negative implica-
tions. They probably have an allegorical role, satirizing the hypocrisy
and deceit perpetrated by the various social classes. They may have
been performing a short drama or doing a comic dance on this theme.
Some prints in which the foxtail was used to symbolize fraud
and flattery were made in Germany in the first half of the sixteenth
century. A woodcut by Erhard Schon (c. 1535) has the inscription,
Anyone who cannot brush the foxtail (i.e., flatter others)
no matter whether woman or man,
will the longer be poor
and stand at the end of the line his whole life long.
The Eoxtail Store (1546, fig.26) a woodcut by an unidentified
German artist has a long explanatory inscription. The sixteen people
coming to buy foxtails include eleven clergymen and five laymen:
a pope, a cardinal, a bishop, a canon, a priest, and a monk of the
Carthusian order along with a lord, a knight, a citizen, a peasant, and
a jester. Those with the greatest need for foxtails were the clergy. The
title reads, “Come here, whoever wants to buy a foxtail. You can get
a fine value.” The inscription explains why all these people need
51
Doubts over Reading Political Content into Bruegel
It has been contended that Bruegel’s paintings contain allusions
to the oppression of the Netherlands under Spanish rule during his
time, for example, in Bob Claessens’s Unser Bruegel (1969)54^ and
Jean Francis’s Brueghel contre les pouvoirs (196 9)-55) I have grave
doubts about interpreting Bruegel’s work in terms of political events.
Here I will discuss the possible misreading involved in such an
interpretation using the example of the Cripples (1568, fig.24).
Delevoy (19 5 9),56' Claessens, and other scholars have seen this
work as a specific allusion to the events of April 5, 1566. This was
the day about three hundred nobles, led by Hendrik van Brederode
and Louis of Nassau, visited the palace of the Spanish regent of the
Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, and presented her with a petition
to Phillip II asking him to abolish the Inquisition and summon the
States-General. The members of this group attached foxtails to their
hats and spears as insignia. In response to their petition, Count
Berlaymont, part of Margaret’s coterie, muttered, “Ce n’est pas de
gueux" (they’re nothing but a bunch of beggars). The group sub-
sequently referred to itself as the Beggars and their rallying cry was
“Long live the Beggars!”
Bruegel’s cripples are gathered in a courtyard between two large
buildings, leaning on crutches and wearing hats which seem to
identify them as a king, a bishop, a knight, a burgher, and a peasant.
Each has a number of foxtails attached to his chest, and this has been
taken as evidence that they represent the Beggars’ party. However,
a cripple dressed in the same way had already appeared in Bruegel’s
Battle Between Carnival and Lent which was painted in 1559, seven
years before the incident in question. Therefore, it is unreasonable
to identify these cripples as members of the group of nobles organ-
ized in 1566. Also, the king, bishop, and peasant represented in the
Bruegel painting had no counterparts among the Beggars League.
There are Latin and Dutch inscriptions, possibly the words of
a contemporary humanist, on the back of the Cripples. The Dutch
reads, “Cripples. Hurrah. Success to your trade.” 57) What was this
trade? The figures in Cripples (Brussels, Mesees Royaux des Beaux -
Arts) by the Master of the Prodigal Son (born c.1530, active in the
1560s) and Cripples in the Marketplace by Marten van Cleve (1579,
fig.25) also wear foxtails just like those in the Bruegel picture. In
the Van Cleve drawing, they also wear hats suggesting various social
ranks, including those of king and bishop. The cripples in these works
are shown in the town square, supporting themselves with crutches
and performing for a crowd of onlookers, attempting to amuse them
or attract sympathy. They are accompanied by a healthy woman who
holds out a bowl and accepts alms. The woman in Bruegel’s painting,
performing the same role as the woman in the Van Cleve, has been,
however, identified with Regent Margaret, because Bruegel’s woman
turns her back to them. This is a rather strained explanation since the
woman is obviously part of the cripples’ group. It is too simplistic to
look at Bruegel’s depiction of cripples in isolation and conclude that
it is connected to a certain political event just because it took place
two years before the painting was executed. It is necessary to compare
it with works by other artists on the same theme in the same period
in order to judge what role is performed by the cripples.
It is also advisable to consider the proverbs related to foxtails in
the Dutch language.58^ Met den vossestaart strijken (to stroke with
a foxtail) means to use cunning to get things done, to flatter or curry
favor. Ergens met een vossestaart doorheen loopen (to walk about
with a foxtail) means to treat things lightly. Met een vossestaart
geeselen (to whip with a foxtail) means to punish lightly or per-
functorily, since striking someone with a foxtail doesn’t hurt.
Vossestaarten krijgen (getting foxtails) means to be cunning, to be
inclined to thievery. There was even a jail with the name “Foxtail”.
Thus, Bruegel’s cripples, although they do not appear in a real setting
like the public square in the pictures by the Master of the Prodigal
Son and Van Cleve, are wearing an attribute with negative implica-
tions. They probably have an allegorical role, satirizing the hypocrisy
and deceit perpetrated by the various social classes. They may have
been performing a short drama or doing a comic dance on this theme.
Some prints in which the foxtail was used to symbolize fraud
and flattery were made in Germany in the first half of the sixteenth
century. A woodcut by Erhard Schon (c. 1535) has the inscription,
Anyone who cannot brush the foxtail (i.e., flatter others)
no matter whether woman or man,
will the longer be poor
and stand at the end of the line his whole life long.
The Eoxtail Store (1546, fig.26) a woodcut by an unidentified
German artist has a long explanatory inscription. The sixteen people
coming to buy foxtails include eleven clergymen and five laymen:
a pope, a cardinal, a bishop, a canon, a priest, and a monk of the
Carthusian order along with a lord, a knight, a citizen, a peasant, and
a jester. Those with the greatest need for foxtails were the clergy. The
title reads, “Come here, whoever wants to buy a foxtail. You can get
a fine value.” The inscription explains why all these people need
51