Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Dutch. Pieter Bruegel de Oude, MPA: [ˈpitər ˈbrøːɣəl]; c. 1525 - September 9, 1569, Brussels), also known with the nickname "Peasant" - a Dutch painter and graphic artist, the most famous and significant of those who bore this surname artists. Master of landscape and genre scenes. Father of painters Pieter Brueghel the Younger (Infernal) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (Paradise).
BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST
Pieter Brueghel was probably born between 1525 and 1530 (the exact date is unknown). The place of his birth is most often called the city of Breda (in the modern Dutch province of North Brabant) or the village of Bregel near this city.
He began his creative biography as a graphic artist. By the mid-1540s, he ended up in Antwerp, where he studied in the workshop of Peter Cook van Aelst, the court painter of Emperor Charles V. Brueghel worked in the workshop of Van Aelst until the death of his teacher in 1550.
In 1551, Brueghel was accepted into the Antwerp guild of painters and went to work in the workshop of Hieronymus Cock, who printed and sold engravings. In Kok's workshop, the artist saw prints from paintings that made such an impression on him that he painted his own variations on the themes of the great artist.
In 1552-1553, at the suggestion of Kok, Brueghel traveled to France, Italy, and Switzerland to make a series of drawings of Italian landscapes intended for reproduction in engraving. I was shocked by the ancient monuments of Rome and the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the elements of the sea and the picturesque harbors of the Mediterranean. Presumably in Rome, he worked with the miniaturist Giulio Clovio.
In 1563, Brueghel married the daughter of his teacher Van Aelst, Maria (Meiken).
In 1556, Brueghel worked in Antwerp for the Four Winds printing workshop, owned by the Dutch publisher Hieronymus Cock. Based on Brueghel's drawings, engravings "Big fish eat small ones" and "Donkey at school" were made here. Wanting to please the tastes of wealthy customers, Kok did not even hesitate to forge signatures on engravings. So, the engraving "Big fish eat small" was sold with the signature of the famous Dutch artist.
In 1557, Brueghel painted a series of engravings illustrating the seven deadly sins.
In 1563 he moved with his family to Brussels.
In 1565, the series "Pictures of the Months or Seasons" was written, from which only five works have survived. In late medieval illustrated prayer books for the nobility, religious texts were often preceded by a calendar, where there was a page for each month. The change of seasons was depicted most often through the prism of the occupations corresponding to each month. But for Brueghel, nature plays the main role in the change of seasons, and people, as well as forests, mountains, water, animals, become only part of the vast landscape.
"Return of the herds. Autumn”, “Hunters in the snow. Winter” and “Haymaking” are of the same format and, possibly, made for the same customer. The other two are Harvest. Summer" and "Gloomy Day. Spring". Karel van Mander names the rich Antwerp merchant Nicolas Jongelinck as the customer of the entire Months series, who then, urgently in need of a large sum of money, pledged all these paintings and never redeemed them.
Pieter Brueghel was about forty when the army of the Spanish Duke of Alba entered Brussels with orders to exterminate the heretics in the Netherlands. Over the following years, Alba sentenced several thousand Dutch people to death. The last years of his life were spent in an atmosphere of terror planted by Alba. Of one of Brueghel's last works, The Magpie on the Gallows, van Mander writes that: “He bequeathed to his wife a painting with a Magpie on the Gallows. Magpie means gossipers whom he would like to see hanged. The gallows were associated with Spanish rule, when the authorities began to sentence to a shameful death by hanging predicates, and the terror of Alba itself was based almost exclusively on rumors and denunciations.
The painting "Massacre of the Innocents" contains an image of a sinister man in black, watching the execution of the order of King Herod; this man is very similar to Alba; it means that the artist compares King Philip II with Herod.
The artist died on September 5, 1569 in Brussels. He was buried in the Brussels church of Notre Dame de la Chapelle.
Of all the surviving paintings by Brueghel, about a third are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. There are no works by Brueghel in Russia.
CREATION
More than thirty of the approximately forty-five paintings by Brueghel (or attributed to him) are devoted to depicting nature, the village and its inhabitants. Faceless representatives of the rural lower classes become the main characters of his work: in his drawings, he often hides his face altogether.
None of the artists had previously dared to create works on such topics. But many later works testify to the artist's growing interest in individual figures. The artist begins to paint large figures of people, in relation to which the environment plays an already subordinate role. Such paintings include "The Parable of the Blind", "The Destroyer of Nests" (another name is "The Peasant and the Destroyer of Nests"), "The Cripples" and "The Misanthrope".
Adoration of the Magi
The fantastic canvases of Hieronymus Bosch helped the artist to find artistic means to depict what was happening in his homeland.
In the Adoration of the Magi, the artist allegorically showed that the birth of a child does not cause joy if war and death reign in the world. The compositional center of the picture, completely filled with people, is the sad figure of the Virgin Mary with the Baby on her knees. She is wrapped in a blue cloak, and her face is almost invisible. Her figure, painted in cold colors, contrasts with the environment, solved in warm colors, and therefore involuntarily attracts the viewer's attention. Behind her, the figure of Joseph rises in a light silhouette, attentively listening to the whispering of a passerby. In front of Mary are three wise men. Two, kneeling, offer their gifts to the Christ Child.
The expressions of their senile faces are like grimaces. On the left side of Madonna Belshazzar. His dark Negro face contrasts sharply with his white robes. At the entrance, inside and around the barn, where Mary gave birth to the Christ Child, people are crowding mocking the event, their facial expressions are extremely cruel. Among them are many soldiers with lances, the tips of which are directed to the sky. Thus, the artist, as it were, transfers the Birth of Christ to his contemporary, war-torn Netherlands. Brueghel's artistic images are overloaded with semantic content: hints of topicality, biblical allegory, the play of the artist's own imagination - all this is included in the narrow framework of one work.
Brueghel's creations require intense attention from the viewer, disturbing with their ambiguity, awakening the imagination.
All this gives the deepest meaning to his painting Adoration of the Magi, which is kept in the London National Gallery.
HARVEST
There are five known paintings by Brueghel (1525/1530-1569) dedicated to the seasons, and one of them is the Harvest located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She, like the rest, was commissioned by the long-term patron of the artist Niklas Jongelinck for his house near Antwerp.
This series reflects the medieval tradition of decorating calendars with images of human activities related to a particular month of the year. "Harvest" is believed to correspond to August. At the same time, this is already a purely Renaissance work, it shows the influence of Italian Renaissance painting, the richness of which Brueghel could see during his travels. However, everything perceived by him was greatly reworked, and his own, Brueghelian, perception of the world comes to the fore. Take, for example, the fact that none of his contemporaries created such landscapes and panoramic pictures of peasant labor.
The landscape spreads freely - a golden sea of wheat, a village and yellow fields in the distance - goes into a foggy haze, to a distant lake. This space is inhabited by people who reap, knit sheaves, carry a huge cart of wheat, eat and sleep under a tree, and there, in the village, they also do household chores. Brueghel was often in the countryside and knew peasant life well. She was a constant source of inspiration for him.
Able to mercilessly expose the bad sides of human nature, Brueghel portrayed the peasants with sympathy and admiration for their work and rest.
Here, as in other works of the cycle, the balance of nature and man, which is achieved only by a worthy life, is emphasized. To the conclusion about the contract between man and nature - read God - the world rests, Brueghel unobtrusively sums up his picture.
BRUEGEL, PETER(Brueghel, Pieter) (c. 1525–1569), also Pieter Brueghel the Elder, the last great Renaissance painter in the Netherlands. The biography of Pieter Brueghel, written in 1604 by the Dutch artist and biographer Karel van Mander, is the main source of information about the master. According to Van Mander, Pieter Brueghel (sometimes spelled Breughel or Bruegel) became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp in 1551; this suggests that he was born approximately between 1525 and 1530. The place of birth and the circumstances of his life in his youth are largely unknown. It is believed that Brueghel was a student of Pieter Cook van Aelst and later collaborated with the publisher Hieronymus Cock, who engraved many of Brueghel's drawings. During 1552 and 1553 Brueghel traveled through Italy and even reached Sicily. Returning from there in 1554, he studied the Alps. Then he lived for some time in Antwerp and eventually settled in 1563 in Brussels. Here he married and prospered, enjoying the recognition of his contemporaries and receiving more than enough orders from influential patrons. Brueghel died in Brussels on September 5, 1569. His two sons, Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638) and Jan Brueghel (1568–1625), became famous artists.
Brueghel's earliest works are landscape drawings, some of which document subtle observations of nature, while others practice and study the landscape painting techniques of the Venetians and other northern masters of the older generation, such as Joachim Patinir (c. 1485–1524) and Herri Met de Bles (c. 1480–1550). It is this combination of direct, direct observation with conditional formulas that creates the effect of the inexplicable attraction of Brueghel's paintings. The artist considered the landscape not just as a scenery, but as an arena in which a human drama unfolds. One of his earliest paintings Fall of Icarus(c. 1558, Brussels, Royal Museum of Fine Arts). In this painting, on a hill overlooking a bay littered with ships, a plowman, a shepherd and a fisherman go about their daily work. None of them notices the feet of Icarus beating on the water, sinking far from the shore. Brueghel treats the spectacle of his death as an insignificant detail in the undisturbed rhythm of the universe.
One of the main themes in Brueghel's work is the depiction of human weakness and stupidity - a legacy of late medieval thinking. In his drawing Big fish eats small(1556, Vienna, Albertina) depicts a small fish crawling out of a huge fish lying on the shore. Again, a saying is taken as a name, clearly hinting at excesses and gluttony. In pictures The Battle of Lent and Carnival(c. 1559), Children's games(c. 1560, both - Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), Dutch proverbs(c. 1560) depicts a crowd in the village square. Although the titles of Brueghel's paintings are accurate in their descriptiveness, each seems to be also an ironic commentary on the aimlessness of human activity.
Brueghel enriched the images of stupidity by resurrecting the monstrous and fantastic creations of Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516). These creatures appear in a series of engravings by Coca based on drawings by Brueghel. Seven deadly sins And seven virtues(1558). The Bosch spirit reappears in such late Brueghel paintings as Fall of angels(1562, Brussels Royal Museum of Fine Arts) and Mad Greta(1562, Antwerp, Mayer van den Berg Museum).
In many of the master's paintings, the characters, depicted in full detail and colorfully dressed, have faces devoid of individuality, reminiscent of masks. Brueghel was never interested in human individuality. He was occupied by an ordinary, average person from medieval mystery plays, and it is precisely such an anonymous humanity that inhabits the cosmic environment of the artist's outstanding religious paintings. IN Triumph of death(c. 1562, Prado) The theme of death dances, popular at the time, is enhanced by a landscape that inspires both awe and gloomy horror, in which an army of skeletons destroys all life. IN Carrying the Cross(1564, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) also shows endless expanses filled with faceless rough hordes. In the middle of the procession is the unremarkable figure of Christ, who has fallen under the weight of the cross and is almost lost in the indifferent crowd.
Brueghel wanted his audience to see the gospel story in the light of contemporary Flanders. In two pictures Massacre of the innocents(c. 1566, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) and Census in Bethlehem(1566, Brussels, Royal Museum of Fine Arts) - a typical landscape of a snow-covered Flemish village from the time of Brueghel is used as an entourage. In the second of them, Joseph and Mary are barely distinguishable among the city people. in the picture tower of babel(1563, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), filled with Bosch characters, the tower itself is placed against the backdrop of a rural landscape, very similar to Flanders in the 16th century.
Perhaps Brueghel's most majestic paintings are the five landscapes called Seasons, or Months(1565), depicting the Flemish countryside at different times of the year. Only a few artists had the ability to so sensitively capture the mood of a particular season and express the inner connection of man with the rhythm of nature. in the picture Hunters in the snow(1565, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) depicts a world bound by the cold of winter. The composition of the painting uses a technique typical of Brueghel's painting - a high foreground, from which a view of the plain extending below is used. Diagonal lines of trees, roofs and hills direct the viewer's gaze strictly into the space of the picture, where people work and have fun. All their activities take place in the stillness of the frosty air. Trees and figures are depicted as frozen silhouettes against the background of a gray winter landscape, and the peaks of the peaked roofs echo the battlements of the mountains in the distance. In the picture Harvest(1565, New York, Metropolitan) from the same series depicts a sunlit field; a group of peasants on it interrupted their work for a midday meal.
Van Mander characterizes Brueghel as a peasant painter; however, this assessment overlooks the undoubted complexity of the master's work and rather comes from the plots of his well-deserved paintings depicting the rough everyday life of the inhabitants of the Flemish village.
Both at the beginning and at the end of his life, Brueghel reflects on the innate stupidity of man. In the picture Misanthrope(1568, Naples, National Museum and Gallery of Capodimonte) there is an inscription: "Since the world is so treacherous, I walk in mourning clothes" and depicts an evil dwarf stealing a purse from a gloomy old man. In the picture Blind(1568, ibid.) six blind men, staggering, walk in a chain to the stream, into which the first of them has already fallen. The picture is connected with the words of the gospel parable (Matthew 15:14) - "but if the blind lead the blind, then both will fall into the pit."
Brueghel has many faces: he was both a medieval moralist and a landscape painter in the modern sense of the word; was a true northern artist, and at the same time his painting is marked by Italian influence. Some consider him an orthodox Catholic, others - an adherent of a heretical sect. However, these paradoxes are not irreconcilable. The greatness of Brueghel lies in the assertion of the inextricable link between man and nature, as well as in the deeply human vision of Christian history as a living reality.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder is a Dutch artist, he is the most famous painter who bore this surname. Born presumably in 1525, lived for about 40 years, dying in 1569. Pieter Brueghel the Elder had an interesting nickname "Peasant". His paintings were most often created in such an artistic genre as the genre scene. Peter had two sons, and Jan Brueghel the Elder, who were also painters, but less famous. The exact date of the artist's birth has not been established, but the city of Bred, which is now located in North Brabant, is considered to be the place. However, some historians are inclined to believe that Pieter Brueghel the Elder was born in the village of Brueghel, which is located next to the aforementioned city. His biography is filled with various interesting facts. For example, the artist in his signature in 1559 removed one letter, and it turned out Bruegel (originally Brueghel).
The beginning of creativity
And today Pieter Brueghel the Elder attracts with his vision of everything that is happening. His paintings are kept in many museums around the world. The painter began his work as a graphic artist. While still a young man, he managed to get to the court painter of Charles V, who was then in power. The painter Peter Cook van Alst taught his ward a lot. Pieter Brueghel the Elder worked in his workshop until the death of his teacher, who died in 1550. After a sad event, the artist entered the guild of painters and went to work for Jerome Kok, who printed engravings. made an impression on Pieter Brueghel the Elder. He was imbued with the idea of a great artist and even created his own variations on his creations.
Travel Europe
The mentor invited Pieter Brueghel the Elder to travel around Europe in order to create landscapes for engravings. What he saw greatly shocked the painter. The majestic monuments of Rome, the beauty of the landscapes of France, the masterpieces of the Renaissance and the magnificent waters of the Mediterranean Sea left an indelible mark on Brueghel's mind. As many scientists believe, in Rome the artist worked with the famous miniaturist Giulio Clovio.
First paintings
In 1563, he married the daughter of a mentor, Pieter Brueghel the Elder. The paintings that were painted for engravings were recognized by everyone as wonderful, they were in demand. In order to please the desires of wealthy clients, Pieter Brueghel the Elder often forged signatures, for example, Hieronymus Bosch, whose paintings he liked so much. After the marriage, such as "Big fish eat small" and "Donkey at school" were written. In 1557, Pieter Brueghel the Elder created several engravings that depicted In 1563, having already gained experience, the artist moved to Brussels with his family.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder was distinguished by the versatility of his works, he wrote almost everything. However, there were things that the artist basically did not draw for unknown reasons. So, Pieter Brueghel the Elder never painted portraits and nudes. His paintings almost always corresponded to this principle. The only portrait that this painter painted is “Head of a Peasant Woman”. Although, undoubtedly, orders for portraits came in large numbers. The nickname "Peasant" Pieter Brueghel the Elder received in order not to confuse him with his son.
Service to the Fatherland
The artist painted pictures reflecting the problems of society and the vices of people. It was the Renaissance of Pieter Brueghel the Elder that became the pinnacle. One of the brightest and greatest artists, if not the world, then definitely the Netherlands, he put a meaning hidden from the eyes into every creation. The artist's paintings can only be understood from a philosophical point of view. One of the main directions was the struggle with the artist's works designed to convey to all the suffering for the fate of each person. Sometimes too cruel, the paintings of Pieter Brueghel the Elder are the ones that attract people. They tell the truth about the world. However, not everything in the works is so gloomy, the artist does not leave hope for the salvation of people, he dreams and conveys to people the idea of harmony, the arrangement of the world on the basis of morality.
The meaning of the paintings
During the life of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, the Inquisition flourished in Europe. Everywhere, especially in small towns, people were brutally killed for the slightest denunciation of them. Heretics, as the executioners believed them to be, were burned at the stake, buried alive in the ground, drowned, and subjected to terrible tortures. For any denunciation, even not supported by facts, they paid very well, so people often gave even their loved ones to be torn to pieces by the Inquisition. All this is told by many paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
End of life
The artist died in 1569 in Brussels. His most recent creation was The Triumph of Truth (according to van Mander, a writer and artist). He also claims that this painting was the best of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
List of some paintings:
- "Nest Busters";
- "Peasant dance";
- "Peasant wedding";
- "Misanthrope";
- "The Parable of the Blind";
- "Magpie on the gallows";
- "Three Soldiers";
- "Cripples";
- "Conversion of Saul";
- "Adoration of the Magi in a winter landscape";
- "A wedding dance".
most famous creation
According to many connoisseurs, the best creation is Flemish Proverbs. This picture was created in 1559, it tells about funny incidents in people's lives. Mareinissen, the famous art historian, deciphered the hidden meaning of the action of each person in the picture. "Flemish proverbs" tell in allegorical form about the life, characters, thoughts of people. For example: “She would have tied the devil to the pillow” - she is not afraid of either God or the devil: this vixen is able to curb the most obstinate fellow; straight as hell. “Gnawing a pillar” - a hypocrite, a pillar of the church, a hypocrite, a saint. And so absolutely about every hero of the picture.
Painting "Tower of Babel"
Many creations are among the most famous in the world, which were created by Brueghel Pieter the Elder. The Tower of Babel is one of them. Written in 1563, today kept in Vienna. It is not difficult to guess that the picture tells about one of the Biblical stories: about the mixing of different languages and about the scattering of people. Pieter Brueghel the Elder was the best at portraying the majestic tower, which seems to be eternal. People wanted to rise to God, but they did not succeed.
Painting "The Adoration of the Kings"
The painting was painted in 1564. It belongs to the Biblical. It depicts Jesus Christ, when he was still a baby, with the Mother of God, and rich people present various gifts to the Son of God. Another name for the work is "The Adoration of the Magi". The painting is kept in London, at the National Gallery.
Painting "Children's games"
This creation was created by Pieter Brueghel the Elder in 1560. The painting "Children's Games" depicts a street where a huge number of children play. As in all the works of the painter, there is a hidden meaning here. The essence of the picture lies in the fact that the artist compares people's lives with the games of children. Thus, Pieter Brueghel the Elder shows how petty human existence is. The guys in the picture do not have smiles, they depict actions that are usually performed by adults, and like them, they are completely devoted to the game of life.
The pinnacle of the Dutch Renaissance was undoubtedly the work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, nicknamed Muzhitsky. He possessed in the highest degree what is called national identity: all the remarkable features of his art are grown on the basis of original Dutch traditions. Like no one, Brueghel expressed the spirit of his time and its folk flavor. He is popular in everything - he thinks in unison with folk wisdom, the philosophy of life contained in his allegories is bitter, ironic, but courageous. Little is known about Brueghel's life. Apparently, he came from peasants. Studied and lived in Antwerp. In his youth he visited Italy, but the mountains made the greatest impression on him, he sketched them a lot, and subsequently rocky ridges invariably rise on the horizon in his paintings. The artist's favorite type of composition is a large space, as if seen from the top, but everything is written in detail and clearly. Brueghel often painted parables, wrote "Flemish Proverbs". For example, depicts a man throwing flowers at the feet of pigs - this is an analogue of our proverb "do not swords beads before pigs." In his paintings, Brueghel mercilessly, bitingly ridicules greed, stupidity, laziness in front of the viewer, but he is far from misanthropy. Life has a tart and bitter taste, but it is life, and he loves it in his own way. Sometimes Brueghel from the heart admires the rude fun of the peasants. And he admires his country - its wide-spread landscapes, its songs, its hardworking people, shepherds and farmers, snowy winters, generous summers ... Brueghel is a master of fantastic grotesque, but his fantasy is very real, tangible. And in his compositions, he reveals all life, everyday, real, different, philosophically reflects on its course, on the strange laws of life. The creative life of Pieter Brueghel did not last long, he died forty-something years, almost living up to the liberation of his country from Spain. It is said that he felt the approach of death and prepared for it. The artist bequeathed to his wife the painting "Forty on the Gallows", which tells about the talkers who inevitably await the gallows. And shortly before his death, Brueghel painted the painting "The Triumph of Truth", which friends considered the best picture of the artist. Brueghel left three children: two sons and a daughter. Both sons - Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Velvet - became good painters. Brueghel is buried in Brussels, in the Church of Our Lady. On the marble tombstone, inscribed in gold letters:
TO PIETER BRUEGHEL, AN ARTIST OF THE GREATEST WORKFORCE AND MAGNIFICENT SKILL, WHICH NATURE ITSELF - THE MOTHER OF ALL THING IS GLORIOUS, WHICH IS THE MOST EXPERIENCED ARTISTS LOOKING UP FROM BELOW, AND RIVALS IMITATE HIM IN VAIN.
In this picture, the artist showed the transition period from autumn to winter. In the summer the herd was grazing on the hills, and now a group of people through the hollows and valleys is driving it down to the village. We see her in the trees. Behind the village, like a testimony of bygone times, a dilapidated fortress rises. Up close, the trees are already bare, their branches look like a transparent mesh.
The herd is driven by drovers. The most important of them - on horseback - wrapped himself in a warm cloak and pulled his hat low over his forehead, as if, along with the onset of winter stupor in nature, human life also freezes. But other characters are in a hurry. Therefore, it is sometimes suggested that Bruegel did not show the return, but the theft of the herds.
The movement of the herd at first glance seems chaotic. But in fact, it plays an important role in the entire composition of the picture. The herd is close, but there is a feeling that we are looking at it from a distance.
On the gentle slope of the hill there are bird snares for catching birds. On the hill by the river, people are busy picking grapes. And on the hill next - the gallows.
Calm, but already unfriendly cold blue-gray river. The mountains on the other side come so close to the river that only a narrow strip of land remains. But the man and here managed to build a home. On the left, there are also mountains, but of a completely different nature. They are reminiscent of the Vosges, which Brueghel saw in his youth, during a trip to Italy.
The landscape is characterized by great brightness of colors. In the foreground - dark tones, on the slope - various shades of red vineyards, a yellow-red coast. The artist used the same rich colorful combinations when he painted the sky. It is evening now. The last rays of the sun still illuminate part of the sky with even light, but the sky is gradually covered with dark clouds, becoming blue-gray.
One of the most remarkable details of the picture is the black branches of a naked tree against the blue sky. Perhaps, it is best seen here that Bruegel seeks to show not the pulse of life in nature, but, on the contrary, the coming numbness with the brightness and contrast of colors. It catches nature at the height of its beauty.
Before us is a yellow wheat field. In the distance - meadows, trees, a gentle hill covered with yellow wheat and the sea. Eno a flat surface resembles a tin plate. And above all this - a greyish-yellow, scorched sky.
The harvest is coming. Some reapers are working, while others are resting. One peasant reaps, another collects standing ears in a bunch. The third one comes out of the boundary with an earthenware jug, which probably contains water. Three peasant women with sheaves are walking along the far boundary towards the village.
The artist depicted noon. In the foreground, a group of peasants settled down with their modest meal. The sun is hot and people are huddled together, sitting close to each other to get into the shade of a tree. They sit on tightly bound sheaves. Most people eat curdled milk from earthenware bowls. The farmer takes bread out of the basket and cuts it into large pieces. The other, with his head thrown back, drinks from a large jug. A sleeping reaper was immediately spread out nearby, and his posture reflected all the feeling of the midday August heat. We feel that it is hot here also because the pitcher standing in the ears was covered with a plate so that the contents would not get too hot.
The picture is full of sun, warmth, love of life. She sings of labor and fertility of her native land.
Painters before Brueghel imagined nature as an eternally lasting summer. Brueghel was the first to learn how to convey the change of seasons and the associated changes in human life.
Before us is a gloomy landscape in early spring. In the foreground is a tree-covered hill. Obviously, a storm passed here - it was she who fell the tree on the right, and now it seemed to cover the top of the hill with branches.
Peasants cut bare tree branches and gather them into bundles. Here are two adults and a boy in a paper carnival hat, with a lantern in his hand. A bell is hung from his belt. The very presence of the peasants, their businesslike, confident movements enliven this gloomy area, remove the feeling of harsh homelessness, fill the space with human warmth.
Under the hill is a village with an inn and a church. The houses, covered with straw or tiles, crowded together, standing close to each other, as if guarding the warmth and comfort of each of them. Bare low trees stand between the houses. The village road is covered with wet mud. Behind the village, a garden spread out on the plain.
Snow lies on the peaks and in the crevices of distant mountains. Cold morning light shines through the dark ragged night clouds. It creates unsettling, stark contrasts between light and shadow.
If in the first place is the calm after the storm, then in the distance everything is filled with excitement. Sharply curving, a stormy full-flowing river flows. It looks like it's about to burst its banks. The river flows into the cold, inhospitable sea. Waves crash against the dam, and white foam forms along the shore.
From the shore, people look into the sea with fear, but right there, in the sea, a dam protrudes - this is a trace of a successful struggle between man and the elements. The plain here is covered with wide roads, narrow paths. There are good-quality residential buildings along the coast.
In this picture, the action also takes place in the city. Before us are city houses and a long, straight street stretching into the distance. But the city suddenly ends abruptly, and the street leads us straight to the river. A light loggia, reminiscent of southern, Italian architecture, is attached to a typical Dutch house in the center of the picture. The picture is filled with small figures of people, similar to puppet puppets. Bright, colorful spots of their clothes give the impression of flickering, fast movement. But among these people there is not a single adult. There are many children here playing various games: spinning tops, chasing a hoop, playing leapfrog, rolling on a barrel, standing on their heads. And it seems that there is no game in the world that the artist would not show here.
Why did Brueghel need to depict this world of children's games so accurately, so carefully? And why doesn’t the picture seem joyful and cheerful at all?
Since ancient times, people have noticed that there is a great similarity between human life and the cycle of nature: just as nature comes to life in spring, blooms in summer, withers in autumn and falls asleep in winter, so a person lives his life from childhood to old age.
In the painting, Brueghel depicted summer - trees dressed in greenery, children sitting on the banks of the river, bathing. And among the games we notice the following: in the room on the left, the girls play mother-daughters, in the center - a wedding game. Children play with adult seriousness. "The world and all that belongs to it is but child's play," wrote the 17th-century Dutch poet Jakob Kats.
Look how many evil games there are in the picture, in which they deceive each other, offend the weak. Brueghel shows in the picture many of the negative properties of a person.
The theme of the picture is called "Inverted World". In front of us is the square of a medieval city with a church, a tavern, houses with peaked roofs. In the foreground, a buffoon's performance is played out: a pot-bellied man sitting on a barrel pompously fights with a tall, skinny figure in monastic clothes. The artist presented the martial arts of the folk holiday Maslenitsa with Lent, which precedes the most important church holiday - Easter. And the whole picture is divided into the realm of Maslenitsa and the realm of Lent.
On Shrovetide's head is a closed frying pan, from which the legs of a fried chicken stick out. A barrel is his horse, a skewer with a piglet is his weapon. The barrel is pushed by mummers in colorful carnival hats. They are followed by a dish of waffles (in the Netherlands, special honey waffles are prepared for Shrovetide). Next to the barrel is a man with a pot of honey, and behind him is another, in a funny and scary nosed mask. The solemn procession is accompanied by musicians.
At the entrance to the tavern, a comic wedding is played out, and curious people look out of the windows. In the depths of the picture, people dance and burn an effigy of winter.
The lean figure of Post rises on a three-legged chair. Post's cart is pulled by two nuns. At the feet of Lent are dry cakes and pretzels. This is the meager food that is allowed to be eaten at this time. At the well, old women sell fish - meat is forbidden to eat during fasting.
In the same way, the festivities flare up as they approach the tavern, and the scene becomes gloomier and more serious as they approach the church. Here are the legless cripples and the blind. A child wrapped in rags lies on the ground, and a nun collects alms for him. Two old women are dragging a cart with skinny legs sticking out of it. Wearing dark clothes and covering their heads, people enter the temple.
At first glance, it seems that before us are the events of one day, and the artist depicted what he saw when he went out onto the square on a holiday. But on what day does the action take place? At the end of February or at the beginning of March, a merry carnival lasted, and then fasting began. The first Sunday of Lent was, according to Dutch customs, the day of the carnival, when exactly such comic "battles" were presented on the squares. Willow branches in the hands of one of the characters indicate Palm Sunday. At the same time, a procession of worshipers leaving the church suggests that Brueghel had in mind Good Friday.
Brueghel conveys the feeling of spring with extraordinary accuracy. Classes characteristic of spring are shown: standing on a ladder, a woman washes a window. A chimney sweep sat down on the windowsill of the same house - with the onset of heat, he must clean the pipes in the houses. Buds swelled on the branches of the trees.
Brueghel seems to be striving to create an encyclopedia of urban life in the spring.
But in fact, there is much more here than it seems at first glance.
The artists of that time put a second, hidden meaning into everything they depicted, they encrypted what could not be spoken about openly. Brueghel knew how to do this, perhaps better than anyone else.
It is no coincidence that Brueghel so carefully depicted the episodes of church attendance, the distribution of alms, meager Lenten food. In the 16th century, the Catholic clergy became even stricter in demanding compliance with all the rules of fasting, regular church attendance.
Post has a beehive on his head. The temple is a beehive, and the parishioners are bees, it was said in Catholic sermons.
The Protestants refused to observe the rules of fasting, so the figure of Maslenitsa represents the Protestant church. Not accidental on the square and the tavern - the Catholics dismissively called the Protestant churches taverns. The Catholic Church forbade its clergy to marry, and, as if in defiance of its ban, a wedding is played out in the picture.
Thus, the artist depicted a religious dispute here. But which side is he on? On the right we see children playing. By their carelessness they emphasize the hypocritical character of Catholic piety.
But the opponents also do not arouse the sympathy of the artist. On the side of Shrovetide, Brueghel placed two receding figures. On the back of a man - something resembling a bag. In the time of Brueghel, the bag hinted at egoism: the egoist, blaming the shortcomings and weaknesses of others, is blind to his own shortcomings and therefore drags them along like a bag. Next to the man is a woman with a lantern. A burning lamp was often associated with the mind, illuminating the path of a person. And this lamp went out ... This couple is led by a little jester in colorful clothes. His figurine is an expression of the artist's mockery of empty and fruitless religious disputes.
A long table was set up in a large shed, around which the wedding guests gathered. There are so many guests that they can hardly fit at the table. Peasants, peasant women, children sit on benches, three-legged stools, tubs.
On the occasion of the holiday, women put on Sunday caps.
One of them, in order not to stain her dress, brought a bowl of porridge to her chest. Simple rustic crockery is placed on the table. The treat is also simple - porridge, jelly, yogurt. But there are so many of them that two guys, in order to carry the plates, made a tray, removing the door from its hinges. A young man pours wine. With gentle humor, Brueghel in the foreground depicted a baby in a hat that was too big for him, a hat that had slipped over his eyes. He has a cake in his hands, and he licks a sweet finger.
Stacked straw serves as a wall for this room. But the place of the bride is specially decorated: a green veil is stretched on the ropes and a paper lantern hangs. The bride sits in a sedate pose with her hands folded. Next to her are her elderly parents. But where is the groom? Was it the guy in the red hat sitting directly across from her? Or is it a young man pouring wine? Most likely, Brueghel here, as usual, encrypted the proverb: "Poor is he who is not present at his own wedding."
The attention of the viewer is attracted by two people at the table: a monk and a man in the dark velvet clothes of a city dweller (it is believed that this is a self-portrait of Brueghel). The monk is animatedly talking about something to his neighbor, but he listens inattentively, he is immersed in his thoughts.
We have a spacious view from the hill. You can walk down the hill to the village. The road leads to the village church, whose sharp spire is visible through the trees. The city sprawled along the river. Its high towers echo the outlines of the rocks. The sky, bright on the left, becomes alarming, thunderous over the mountains. What country did the artist show? In the southern Netherlands, where Brueghel lived, there are hills, but no such high mountains.
Brueghel collected here what seems to him the most beautiful on earth: the small houses of his native Dutch village, the full-flowing river, which he met a lot on the way to Italy, the majestic Alps, the impression of which, received during a trip to Italy, Brueghel will keep for life .
The picture delights with an incomparable sense of the beauty of the earth, the grandeur, richness and diversity of nature, the beauty of the native country - part of this vast world.
And it is no coincidence that Brueghel depicted the sower in the foreground, and below, by the road, the green seedlings of the fields. Brueghel here recalls the old parable about how the germinated seeds generously reward the sower for his work.
This idea that the main purpose of man is work, that only through his work can a person achieve unity with nature, will pass through all of Brueghel's work.
There are only a few figures in the picture, and they are given large, close. A soldier, a peasant and a scientist, fat, swollen, like sausages, lie, located along the radii of a circle, in the center of which there is a tree-table with cooked dishes. Nearby, a knight resembling a woman peeps out of a separate house, with folded arms and open mouth. Everything is depicted in accordance with the folk satirical song about the "Land of Schlaraffia":
They fly through the sky - she-she -
There are flocks of roast geese.
And - do you believe - immediately
They are lazy in the mouth
They fly on order.
Thanks to his caustic, sarcastic mind, angry heart, sensitive to the suffering of his homeland, Bruegel paints the painting "Massacre of the Innocents". The artist conveyed in it the suffering of his people under the rule of Spain. In order to express his sympathy for the dead, for the destitute, he recalls the biblical legend about King Herod, who ordered to kill all the babies born in Bethlehem at the same time as Christ and thereby get rid of him. Brueghel transferred this legend to his own time.
However, this is not at all like the biblical Bethlehem in Palestine, this is a real, snow-covered, Flemish peaceful village, where punishers burst into - foreign soldiers armed with spears. They break into houses, set dogs on people, take away children, take people away. One peasant fell on his knees in front of the rider right into the snow, the riders in red uniforms surrounded the village square with a ring. Peasants rush around the square, trying to save their children and save themselves. It is impossible to break out of the formidable ring, it is impossible to lock yourself in the house. No way out, no mercy!
Of course, the artist does not depict the events of Bethlehem at all! This is a punitive detachment sent by the Inquisition or the Duke of Alba to pacify the Flemish gueuzes (participants of the anti-Spanish movement).
There is a lot of disturbing, red color in the picture - the color of blood, the color of red uniforms.
In a large space, there are about a hundred people immersed in strange and absurd activities. Someone is trying to break through the wall with his forehead, someone is burying a well in which a calf is swimming, someone is throwing fish into the river, a woman is strangling an imp, and a radish is lying nearby ...
All this is a visual representation of the metaphors on which folk sayings about human stupidity are built. Many are now half forgotten. and some still live and even have analogues in our Russian folklore. For example, "You can't break through a wall with your forehead" - we know this very well. In general, everyone does his own thing with an air of stupid obsession, not paying attention to others - like the inhabitants of a madhouse.
In general, the spectacle even seems cheerful: the blue sky is shining, the river is splashing, and the figures fill the space with bright red, white and blue spots - a kind of rural street, like a carpet of flowers.
But really, it's not much fun. A ball with a cross - a symbol of the earthly sphere - flaunts in a conspicuous place, only the cross is lowered down: a sign that before us is the world upside down, the country of fools.
A table was brought out of the tavern into the village street. Peasants sit at the table. One of them, with his back to the table, plays the bagpipes, while a young peasant listens attentively to a simple melody.
Here we recall the Dutch proverb: "As the old people sing, so the young whistle." Two peasants are hotly arguing about something, they put aside their mugs and wave their hands in the heat of the argument and are even about to fight. The third is trying to keep them. Behind him sits a peasant woman in a white cap. She closely monitors the debaters and is also ready to intervene at any moment.
Meanwhile, the dance is in full swing. It seems that we can hear the heavy clatter of the boots of a peasant in a black caftan and a black cap, into which a spoon is stuck. His companion put on a Sunday white cap, and its ends flutter in a swift dance; keys rattling from his purse, and a gray skirt with yellow lining is tucked up high.
To the left of the table, holding hands, dancing, imitating adults, children.
In this picture, the artist allegorically showed that the birth of a child does not cause joy if wars and death reign in the world. The center of the picture, completely filled with people, is the sad figure of the Virgin Mary with the Child on her knees. She is wrapped in a blue cloak, and her face is almost invisible. Her figure, painted in cold colors, contrasts with the environment, solved in warm colors, and therefore involuntarily attracts the viewer's attention. Behind her, the figure of Joseph rises in a light silhouette, attentively listening to a passerby. In front of Mary are three wise men. Two, kneeling, offer their gifts to the Christ Child. The expressions of their senile faces are like grimaces. On the left side of Madonna Belshazzar. His dark Negro face contrasts sharply with his white robes. At the entrance, inside and around the barn, where Mary gave birth to the Christ Child, people are crowding mocking the event, the expression on their faces is extremely cruel. Among them are many soldiers with lances, the tips of which are directed to the sky. Thus, the artist, as it were, transfers the Birth of Christ to his contemporary, war-torn Netherlands.
Brueghel's creation requires intense attention from the viewer, disturbs with its ambiguity, awakens the imagination.
Three eastern wise men - sorcerers arrived in Bethlehem to bow and bring their gifts to the born Christ.
In the foreground, Brueghel depicted a dilapidated building. A woman holds a wrapped child in her arms. And at the entrance lined up a string of people who want to see a wonderful baby. And the life of a small town goes on as usual. Snow is falling in large flakes - this is the first image of snowfall in the history of European painting. Snow covers a crowd of onlookers, a hunter, a man walking with a bucket to an ice-hole, donkeys and camels, on which the Magi arrived.
In this picture, in comparison with the previous ones, there was an important change. The artist's field of vision narrowed noticeably. Before us is not a huge world from a bird's eye view, not a spacious street, but a small corner. And Brueghel depicted not so much a wonderful event as the usual way of everyday life. It is important to note that compared to the previous paintings, this painting is very small in size. In The Adoration of the Magi in the Snowfall, Brueghel foresaw the path along which Dutch landscape painting would develop in the next, 17th century.
This is the best picture from the series "The Seasons", painted in oil on a wooden board - a lyrical work, subtle, soulful.
Before us is a spacious, dazzlingly beautiful landscape.
To the farthest horizon, the terrain is buried in deep soft snowdrifts, cut through by a mirror of ice. Hunters with a pack of dogs are walking along a snow-covered hill, they are returning home from hunting to the village. The hunters carry sharp lances and game bags. Behind one of them is a dead fox. Hunters do not disappear, do not dissolve in the vast landscape. Their large figures are dressed in coarse dark green and red-brown clothes, which, against the background of white snow, acquire unusually clear contours and become majestic. The snow has recently fallen: the feet of the hunters fall through and leave deep footprints in the snow.
On the left is the tavern "At the shepherd's". The sign depicts the patron saint of hunters, Saint Hubert. Here, a group of people is busy with an important task: a woman stirs up a fire and rakes up ashes, a peasant throws an armful of straw into the fire. A child stands nearby, looks at the fire and warms himself. They just smoked a wild boar carcass here.
Above the hill and the trees, above the houses and the plain, above the people and the mountains - a smooth, bright winter sky. The air seems still, as if crystal.
Bare trees froze in the frosty air, their dark trunks standing in a slender line. Crows sit on bare branches. The black bird seems frozen in flight. Like a black cross, it marks the place in the picture where the mountains and the sky converge.
Looking from the hill, we see: there is a village, and in the distance, at the foot of the mountains, a castle. The white snow cover did not hide, did not hide the diversity of elements in the landscape. The plain is cut by the river so that its sharp bends are clearly visible. The frozen river, streams and ponds reflect the sky. Between the ponds lies a road running away into the distance. To the left, near the horizon, there is a frozen sea, on its shore - a city with a high church tower and snow-covered roofs. Near the shore - boats and ships frozen into the ice.
Children play on ponds covered with greenish ice. Cloudy skies also appear greyish-green.
The picture evokes in the viewer a feeling of fresh winter frosty air, a feeling of cheerfulness, freshness and joy.
The artist chose one of the most poetic ancient myths as the plot for this painting.
The artist and builder Daedalus, on the orders of the king of the island of Crete Minos, erected a complex and intricate structure - the Labyrinth, where the king concluded a terrible monster - the Minotaur. Every year, Athens, subject to Minos, had to sacrifice beautiful young men and women to the Minotaur. But once the Athenian hero Theseus killed the monster, and Daedalus helped Theseus escape. The act of Daedalus aroused the wrath of Minos. Then Daedalus made wings for himself and his son Icarus from bird feathers molded with wax, and fled from Crete. When Icarus, intoxicated with flight, disobeyed Daedalus and flew too close to the sun, the sun's rays melted the wax. Icarus fell into the sea and died.
The Roman poet Ovid wrote about Daedalus and Icarus:
Everyone who sees them, is a fisherman with a trembling hook,
Or a shepherd with a club, or a plowman, leaning on a plow, -
All numb in them, sweeping freely across the sky.
Gods were taken for unearthly.
Brueghel's painting depicts a peaceful landscape on the seashore: a plowman follows a plow, and a plowshare, crashing into the ground, divides it into clear stripes. The shepherd grazes sheep, the fisherman sits with a fishing rod. In the sea, covered with white crests of waves, ships come out, and the wind inflates their sails. High mountains rise high into the sky. The sun is setting. It lit up the sky with its golden radiance and is reflected in the greenish waters of the sea.
Where is Icarus, and what does his fall have to do with it? You need to look closely to see in the right corner pitiful bare legs sticking out of the water. Icarus fell from the sky, but no one even noticed it. Ordinary life flows as always. For a peasant, his arable land, for a shepherd, his flock, for a fisherman, his fishing rod is much more important than someone's flights and falls. In the era of Brueghel, there was a different attitude towards the myth of Icarus. It is no coincidence that the saying "He flew too high" sounds condemning. Brueghel's painting is a condemnation of pride and arrogance. The insane proud man is opposed by the figure of a plowman. His work is eternal, because it is inextricably linked with nature.
A huge tower occupies most of the area of the picture. Clouds hide its top. The lower floors are inhabited: numerous human figures are visible in the arches and windows, and laundry is being dried here and there. But there is no end in sight to the construction, walls are being built higher and higher. There are no ceilings over many rooms, and the tower here looks like a honeycomb in which human bees work. Construction continues. Scaffolding is erected, various lifting devices are being constructed, temporary light wooden stairs are being raised. Many builders - masons, carpenters - are working on the construction of the tower.
In the foreground, Brueghel depicted a visit to the building by King Nimrod.
Work is in full swing on the shore.
Bricks are stacked neatly. A raft of logs is driven to the shore with poles. Ships with lowered sails are at anchor.
The city surrounded the tower in a dense ring. One can see the crowded, cramped buildings of a European city, the dark red tiles of high roofs. The city is spread out on a plain, and the roads emerging from it lie between fields and meadows. Only low hills appear near the horizon.
Before the decisive battle with the Philistines, Saul is attacked by the fear of death. Then, with the help of a sorceress, he summons the shadow of the deceased prophet Samuel to find out the outcome of the upcoming battle. Samuel warns that "... the Lord will deliver Israel together with you into the hands of the Philistines; tomorrow you and your sons will be with me."
The next morning, the Israeli army suffers a severe defeat and Saul, being surrounded, is stabbed to death, falling on his sword. (Old Testament myth)
In the picture we see high mountains that cover the sky from us. There are steep slopes overgrown with trees, weather-beaten rocks, severe gorges. There is a battle going on in one gorge. But you can not distinguish between military leaders or individual soldiers. One stream of people surged upon another, and a forest of spears seems to be growing out of the ground - like trees on slopes.
To the left is a small plateau. Clad in metal armor, Saul is already dead. His squire, with his sword to his throat, prepares to follow the example of the king. Enemies are creeping up to the plateau, they are ready to grab Saul. But it's' too late...
The little man is placed in a transparent ball topped with a cross. We know that this ball represents the world. Under the picture is the caption: "Because the world is so deceitful, I wear mourning." It would seem that the meaning of the picture is clear. But let's not rush. Why does a monk, leaving the deceitful world, take his purse with him? And why did Brueghel make the wallet red and give it the shape of a heart? Shouldn't we remember the proverb: "Where there is money, there is the heart"? Perhaps, in the image of a monk, Bruegel showed a hypocrite, his ostentatious piety? In this case, the world deserves revenge on the hypocrite and misanthrope - "For one deception - one and a half."
In the depths of the picture is a shepherd with a flock of sheep and a windmill. A shepherd conscientiously tending his flock is opposed to a misanthrope. And the slowly rotating blades of the mill remind that nothing will change with the departure of the misanthrope, life will go on as usual.
