,,pieter ,,bruegel ,,the ,,elder3 ,a ,,study ,,of ,,his ,,paintings ,illustration3 ,,hunters ,,in ,,the ,,snow 7,,detail7 ,,pieter ,,bruegel ,,the ,,elder ,a ,,study ,,of ,,his ,,paintings ,,by ,,virgil ,,barker ,,new ,,york ,,the ,,arts ,,publishing ,,corporation #aibf ,,copyright1 #aibf ,,by ,,the ,,arts ,,publishing ,,corporation ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,note ,most of the material included in this book was originally published in a special ,bruegel edition of ,the ,arts4 ,mr4 ,barker's essay met with such immediate success that in order to meet the demand the editor decided to increase the number of illustrations and publish ,mr4 ,barker's noteworthy essay in permanent form4 ,comparatively little has been written in ,english on ,pieter ,bruegel the ,elder1 nothing in fact except a few passing magazine articles4 ,at the request of the artists ,the ,arts undertook to supply this want4 ,in selecting ,mr4 ,barker to carry out this important work ,the ,arts was particularly fortunate4 ,besides being an ardent student of the genius of ,bruegel1 the author1 in the course of his duties as ,european correspondent of ,the ,arts1 was able to carry on the special research necessary to give permanent value to the following essay4 ,forbes ,watson4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,conversion ,,of ,,saint ,,paul 7,,detail7 ,,pieter ,,bruegel ,,the ,,elder ,a ,,study ,,of ,,his ,,paintings ,aside from the evidence of the signed and frequently dated prints1 drawings and paintings1 few things are certainly known about the life and personality of ,pieter ,bruegel the ,elder4 ,almost all of these1 such as they are1 occur in a brief passage concerning him1 written about thirty years after his death1 in 8,the ,book of the ,painters0 by ,carel ,van ,mander4 ,herein is no mention of the date of ,bruegel's birth2 even the place of it1 despite a seeming definiteness1 remains in some obscurity4 ,his biographer says that the painter was born 8not far from ,breda1 in a village called ,breughel1#a by which name he called himself and left it to his descendants40 ,the village of that name nearest to ,breda is twenty-five miles away2 and as distances went in the sixteenth century1 this seems hardly to be bridged by ,van ,mander's easy phrase4 ,as for the year1 the guesses of the scholars range all the way from #aeaj to #aecj1 the most widely accepted one being #aebe4 ,any closer determination of it is a matter of comparative unimportance in its possible effect on the period of actual productiveness1 since this is very satisfactorily covered by trustworthy dates4 #a ,there are several different ways of spelling this name1 each having some degree of authority2 but so far as concerns the painter himself1 the deciding fact is that the signatures now visible on the paintings 7about twenty in number7 consistently adhere to ,,brvegel4 ,and whatever the exact year may have been1 it had not been long before when for ,europeans the geographical world had been suddenly enlarged as a sort of materialization of the immediately preceding enlargement of mind4 ,the succession of discoveries--of ,america2 of ,india and the true ,indies2 of ,sumatra1 ,java and ,borneo2 and1 two hundred and fifty years after ,marco ,polo1 of ,china--were only the working on another plane of the essentially exploring spirit which had been previously manifested by the scholars1 scientists and artists of the ,early ,renaissance4 ,national unity on a fresh basis had been realized in ,spain through the expulsion of the ,moors1 and in both ,france and ,england under absolute monarchies which were headed1 at the time of ,bruegel's birth1 by ,francis ,i and ,henry ,,viii4 ,about that time1 also1 ,magellan was circumnavigating the globe and ,cortez was conquering ,mexico2 ,leonardo and ,raphael were dying1 and shortly after them went ,carpaccio1 ,leo ,x and ,signorelli4 ,martin ,luther1 preaching the ,reformation in ,germany1 was thus initiating a movement of ruinous significance for ,bruegel's homeland2 for there the cause of religious liberty1 gradually coalescing with that of political independence1 was to meet with the terrible repressions begun by the newly elected ,emperor1 ,charles ,quint1 who was already by inheritance lord of the ,low ,countries4 ,during all this period of ferment and reorientation for the ,european mind1 ,antwerp1 where ,bruegel was to spend most of his life1 was one of the most important of all ports4 ,situated in what was then the most densely populated region of ,europe1 it had in its own houses a hundred thousand persons2 and of these more than a tenth were foreigners--,german merchants1 ,italian scholars1 ,portuguese ,jews1 ,french ,huguenots1 ,english sailors and the soldiers of ,spain4 ,far-journeyed vessels brought to it the spices and rich stuffs1 the metal-work and strange animals of distant lands2 and their seamen had tales to tell of things far off towards the expanding horizons of the world4 ,in this comfortable and prosperous city1 where the sharp demarcations between classes prevalent in other countries were blurred almost into a real democracy of the bourgeois1 every fresh discovery and important event had its repercussion in the general consciousness4 ,antwerp was thus a natural center of activity for the religious propaganda and disputation which formed so large and so tragic an element in the life of the sixteenth century2 creeds of all sorts readily found adherents among its varied and impressionable populace4 ,lutheranism was so strongly advocated by the convent of ,augustinian monks that its inmates were dispersed1 after the execution of two among them1 and its buildings razed4 ,though the terrorism of the ,inquisitor ,van der ,hulst and his priestly successors imposed silence on many1 there were open preachings as well as clandestine meetings1 and riots in which religion-frenzied women were among the boldest2 and with all the burnings of the books1 with all the imprisonments and the brandings1 the full penalties of the imperial edicts could hardly be enforced by those who were conscious that such enforcement would destroy the principal source of the ,emperor's precarious revenue4 ,even the anarchy of ,anabaptism1 persecuted by ,catholic and ,protestant alike1 made headway through the martyrdom of its believers2 and from #aedd1 almost the very year when the young ,pieter ,bruegel commenced his apprenticeship1 the new sectarianism of ,calvin entered the city and grew rapidly in strength4 ,illustration3 ,,big ,,fish ,,eat ,,little ,,ones 7,,drawing74 #aeef4 ,,vienna1 ,,albertina ,while he was growing up1 the ,english and the ,french were subduing the ,north ,american continent and in the ,andes ,pizarro was rifling the wealth of ,peru2 ,rome was being pillaged by the ,germans2 ,henry ,,viii was finally repudiating ,catholicism and ,ignatius of ,loyola was in a way belatedly replying to ,luther by organizing the ,society of ,jesuits2 ,hampton ,court ,palace1 the ,french chateaux and the palaces of ,venice were being built2 ,erasmus1 ,drer1 ,machiavelli1 ,luini1 ,ariosto1 ,correggio died4 ,as yet unconscious of such events and such personages1 perhaps ignorant of the nearer deaths of ,quentin ,matsys and ,lucas van ,leyden1 the youth of nameless family was living a peasant among peasants--and a genius in the making--sharing to full their laborious1 roistering life4 ,hard drinkers and heavy eaters1 they were much given to feasts and fairs2 marriages1 baptisms1 even deaths were for them occasions for celebrations as excessive as the labor from which they thus escaped4 ,their animal frankness and coarse gaiety blew like a gale of rude health over all their activities4 ,from life itself1 from the small events in a remote village of the ,campine1 ,bruegel absorbed the great sane grossness which now seems buried in the books of his day4 ,bringing with him the peasant vitality which was to develop into a lofty philosophic humaneness1 he came to ,antwerp and1 a youth approaching his twentieth year1 became an apprentice to the celebrated ,pieter ,coeck4 ,paracelsus1 ,copernicus and ,holbein had just died2 ,bruegel had hardly learned to grind his colors when ,french ,francis and ,english ,henry followed them1 even as their sometime enemy1 sometime ally1 ,charles1 was bloodily but only temporarily settling religious questions at ,mhlberg4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,last ,,judgment 7,,drawing74 #aeeh4 ,,vienna1 ,,albertina ,illustration3 ,a ,,village ,,wedding4 ,,philadelphia1 ,,johnson ,,collection ,from his first master ,bruegel must have received somewhat more than a merely technical training1 good as that probably was4 ,coeck had been for four years the pupil of ,bernard van ,orley and had later studied in ,rome2 in his own work afterwards he relied to such an extent upon the formulas then worked out that all of it now seems borrowed2 but the precepts that he would pass on to an apprentice could not dull or conventionalize so forceful a nature as ,bruegel's4 ,of more significance in the development of such a nature must have been the stories of far countries that were told1 adding to his knowledge and stimulating his imagination2 for ,coeck had spent the year of #aecc in the ,constantinople of ,suleiman the ,magnificent and had been one of the entourage of ,charles on his expedition to ,tunis in #aech4 ,painter to the ,emperor and ,dean of the ,guild of ,saint ,luke1 ,pieter ,coeck died in #aeej4 ,then or before ,bruegel passed over to the work-shop of ,jerome ,cock1 who was not so much a painter as a dealer in pictures and a publisher of popular prints4 ,his establishment 8was certainly the rendezvous of all the artists and all the amateurs of ,antwerp and even from abroad4 ,rendered in engraving1 the greater number of existing masterpieces would pass under the eyes of the attentive ,bruegel40 7,bernard3 p4 #eh47 ,the very shop-name1 8,at the ,sign of the ,four ,winds10 symbolized the range of influences that played over him1 the sights and tales that passed into his consciousness2 and for ,bruegel these things could be only so many more incitements to journey into the world and see it all for himself4 ,therefore it is not surprising that1 after he had completed his apprenticeship and been received into the painter's guild1 in #aeea1 he should set out upon his travels4 ,such a trip in those days was no light undertaking4 ,all frontiers were insecure since the wars between ,charles and ,francis for continental domination2 for little or nothing soldiers turned into robbers4 ,van ,mander mentions neither routes nor places1 writing only that ,bruegel 8went into ,france and from there into ,italy40 ,even the drawings now preserved afford no positive information as to the way he went--a circumstance which might be interpreted to mean that already he was interested less in telling what a specific place looked like than in rendering the emotional effect of nature upon himself4 ,but two designs now preserved as etchings are signed and dated at ,rome in #aeec1 and there is a drawing of the ,ripa ,grande which appears to have been done on the spot4 ,the print of a naval battle engraved by ,huys and published by ,cock after ,bruegel's return to ,antwerp indicates that he went as far south as ,messina4 ,illustration3 ,,dancing ,,peasant4 ,,the ,,hague1 ,,van ,,valkenburg ,,collection ,when he passed through ,france1 ,franois ,clouet and ,germain ,pilon were practising their art of tepid grace2 when he reached ,rome1 the ,sistine ,chapel paintings had been completed1 but not the church of ,saint ,peter4 ,at the height of their working powers were ,michelangelo1 ,titian1 ,palestrina1 ,palladio2 and ,benvenuto ,cellini was doubling in the roles of artist and bandit4 ,there is no proof that ,bruegel had any contact with these men2 that he even saw their works is recorded neither in words nor in the paintings by which he lives today in their company4 ,it is certainly reasonable1 however1 to suppose that the fame of his contemporaries had not only reached him but actually played a part in persuading him to his long wayfaring4 ,though still in his twenties1 he even then had sufficiently a mind of his own to avoid the mistake of his predecessors1 who had gone south specifically to copy and imitate the styles of the ,italian painters4 ,in their journeying they were following a fashion1 doing something because others were doing it2 ,bruegel's urge was both deeper and broader1 as his genius was4 ,yes1 the artistic1 the professional1 motive must have had much to do with sending him to ,italy1 but the only way of expressing the sum total of the desires that undoubtedly animated him is to say that he must have craved more life4 8,for to admire an' for to see1 ,for to be'old this world so wide0-- no motive less comprehensive than this could have moved him4 ,he was a great artist in the making1 but he was even more a man than an artist2 for him the art of other men could be only a part1 and not the most important part1 of the all-inclusive experience of which he was in search4 ,only such a conception of his personality can account for the failure of the ,italian masterpieces to influence him then or thereafter and his own immediate and life-long preoccupation with the entire range of nature and of human life4 ,moreover1 so much can be inferred from ,van ,mander's only other reference to this momentous trip1 a reference which takes the form of reporting somebody else's remark that 8444 in the ,alps he swallowed all the rocks and mountains1 to return home and vomit them out on painting-board and canvas44440 #b4 ,towards the end of #aeec1 not long after the deaths of ,rabelais and ,lucas ,cranach1 ,bruegel was back in ,antwerp4 ,he again became affiliated with the shop of ,jerome ,cock1 but now as a sort of collaborator1 making drawings for many plates to be engraved by others and published by the shop4 ,as a successful business man with an eye to the market1 ,cock's specialties were landscapes of all types and grotesqueries in the manner of ,jerome ,bosch1 dead thirty-five years before1 whose works were a mine of motives for exploitation4 ,the former apprentice proved to be an even greater source of revenue and popularity for 8,the ,four ,winds02 he shared completely in the contemporary taste served by the shop and for several years devoted himself entirely to new and increasingly inventive compositions in each genre4 ,illustration3 ,,study ,,for ,a 8,,battle ,,between ,,fat ,,and ,,lean40 #aeeh8 ,,copenhagen1 ,,royal ,,collection ,the pure landscapes of this period fall into two very distinct divisions--the small1 intimate ones and the large1 composite ones4 ,among the first sort those of such obviously picturesque things as ruins are less interesting1 seem less realized1 than those depicting the homely commonplaces characteristic of the ,low ,countries4 ,an indefinite and puddled village street1 a church set among trees1 the hybrid ruralness where town and country meet--the buildings and small figures rendered in a clean1 unwavering line and the massed multitude of leaves given without a superfluous or unmeaning scribble--these things1 conveyed with such immediacy by the free and sensitive pen-work1 become sharp-edged and lose their bloom through the interposition of the engraver's hand4 ,though his return gave him to see all the littlenesses about him with the freshness of a first encounter1 it did not make him forget the mountains which had struck so deeply into his mind2 and he composed a whole series of large1 ,latin-titled designs in which the far and low horizons of home were fabulously combined with ,alpine steeps4 ,in these plates1 deeper than the romanticism of their composite character1 is an immense and sober poetry which transpires even through the hardness of the engraving4 ,illustration3 ,,battle ,,between ,,carnival ,,and ,,lent4 #aeei4 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,battle ,,between ,,carnival ,,and ,,lent 7,,detail7 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,descent ,,of ,,christ ,,into ,,limbo 7,,drawing74 #aefa8 ,,vienna1 ,,albertina ,one print1 dated the very year of his return1 a composition of many people skating just outside a city wall1 is obviously based on direct observation and is ,bruegel's first essay in the realistic rendering of the life of crowds which was later to play so large a part in his painting2 but yet awhile the greater part of his labor went into a long succession of drolleries and diabolisms4 ,illustration3 ,,flemish ,,proverbs4 #aeei4 ,,berlin1 ,,kaiser ,,friedrich ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,children',s ,,games4 #aefj4 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,it is in connection with this part1 and this part only1 of his life-work that there arises any necessity of discussing the influence of another painter on ,bruegel4 ,van ,mander treats the matter thus3 8,he practised much in the manner of ,jerome ,bosch and used to make many such goblin pictures and drolleries1 for which he was called by many ,pieter the ,droll40 ,the biographer here recorded the general contemporary estimate which1 though it is now seen to fall far short of the truth1 was surely natural enough1 since in his own day ,bruegel was popularly known by the widely circulated prints rather than by the unreproduced paintings4 ,the ,big and ,little ,fish of #aeef is directly from ,bosch1 and that his spirit and his manner did have an influence upon ,bruegel is not to be denied4 ,but such influence as ,bosch did exert upon the man who had returned from ,italy uninfluenced was possible only because they shared in a racial streak which can be traced back of them into the ,middle ,ages4 ,the quality that allowed ,bruegel to be influenced by ,bosch at all would have manifested itself in ,bruegel's art even if ,bosch had never lived4 ,moreover1 ,bosch's art was limited almost to this one type of subject-matter1 whereas ,bruegel's art soon developed other and far more important characteristics which overshadowed without obliterating this element of grotesquerie4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,fall ,,of ,,the ,,rebel ,,angels4 #aefb4 ,,brussels1 ,,museum ,for the time being1 however1 it had free rein in a series of ,vices and numerous separate plates such as ,the ,ass at ,school1 ,the ,sorcerer1 ,the ,merchant ,robbed by ,monkeys4 ,in these prints there are1 in addition1 a mastery of design1 an inventiveness of detail and a convincingness of outlandish imagination that far surpass ,bosch's most ambitious efforts4 ,a little of these qualities is to be discerned in the two drawings of ,the ,last ,judgment and ,christ in ,limbo2 and they also display ,bruegel's entire lack of any mystical fervor1 which would have imparted some sort of impressiveness to his ,christs4 ,this negative trait in ,bruegel1 which is the exact obverse of the sort of humaneness which made him great1 is further shown in the series of ,virtues1 also of this period2 although these occasionally exhibit a high degree of skill in handling complex groupings1 they are what professionalized virtues are apt to be--tedious4 ,illustration3 ,,battle ,,between ,,the ,,israelites ,,and ,,the ,,philistines4 #aefb ,,or #aefc4 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,midway in this prosperous and fertile time of development the ,emperor ,charles1 taken with the notion of enjoying all the benefits of being dead while yet alive1 partitioned the empire between his brother and his son1 and himself retired in state to a monastery in ,spain4 ,from this haven1 free of governmental responsibilities1 he was able1 through his dutiful son ,philip1 to instigate increasingly severe measures of religious and political repression for the people of the northern lowlands4 ,yet such things did not affect the personal liberty of ,bruegel1 who was maintaining an irregular establishment described by ,van ,mander in the following anecdote3 8,as long as he lived in ,antwerp1 he kept house with a servant-girl1 whom he might have married had it not misfortuned him that she was always telling lies1 a thing repugnant to his love of truth4 ,he made an agreement or contract with her that he should mark all her lies on a stick--and he took a pretty long one--and when the stick should be full of marks the marriage should be off2 which then happened before much time had passed40 ,illustration3 ,,head ,,of ,,an ,,old ,,peasant ,,woman4 #aefd8 ,,munich4 ,,alte ,,pinakothek ,more important is what ,van ,mander tells us of a friendship3 8,he worked much for a merchant named ,hans ,frankert1 an admirable and excellent man1 who found pleasure in knowing ,bruegel and was with him whole days at a time4 ,with this man ,frankert1 ,bruegel often went among the peasants1 to fairs and marriages1 both dressed like peasants2 and they took presents like the others1 just as if they belonged to the family or acquaintance of the bride or the bridegroom4 ,here ,bruegel found his pleasure in observing the manners of the peasants in eating1 drinking1 dancing1 jumping1 loving and other fun-making2 which things he then very skilfully and carefully rendered again in colors1 in water-color as well as in oil1 in both which mediums he was extraordinarily talented40 ,then ,van ,mander proceeds to stress the faithfulness and accuracy of ,bruegel's peasant pictures in the details of costumes and movements4 ,in short1 ,bruegel had begun to paint4 ,the earliest dated painting1 ,twelve ,flemish ,proverbs1 is interesting only because of its connection with ,bruegel2 its relative clumsiness of execution and utterly unpictorial conception as a whole render it very likely the first of his attempts in a new medium4 ,however1 this picture and the others that must be grouped immediately with it mark the definite emergence of what was thenceforward to be his predominant interest--the life of the peasants1 between whom and himself there existed the unbreakable bonds of a common origin and a common destiny4 ,thus he began at once to paint in accordance with the dictates of his essentially realistic genius1 but the first works of capital importance still retain a large admixture of the fantastic spirit which had been running riot in his recent designs for the engravings4 ,these two pictures are the ,carnival and ,lent and the ,flemish ,proverbs in ,berlin1 both of the year #aeei2 in both fantasy is made convincing through realistic treatment1 just as the ,van ,eycks and ,roger ,van der ,weyden had made convincing their religious idealism1 ,bruegel's difference from them being simply a difference of subject-matter and a still greater reliance upon realistic skill for its own sake4 ,in the ,children's ,games of the next year there occurs the first complete union on a great scale of realism in both matter and manner2 and two years later1 with the ,fall of the ,rebel ,angels1 a recurrence in greatly intensified form of the combination between fantastic idea and realistic treatment4 ,this last painting1 credited to ,jerome ,bosch himself until the discovery of ,bruegel's signature1 is infinitely superior in conception and execution to anything by the earlier man1 and would alone rank its creator as a great painter2 yet the greatness it confers upon its maker is not the kind that is most truly ,bruegel's4 ,through all these paintings of the ,antwerp period there runs a rapidly increasing technical skill--in drawing1 color and design--until the last picture that could possibly have been done before his removal to ,brussels1 the ,israelites and ,philistines1 is for minute workmanship a world's wonder4 ,on a small panel about thirteen by twenty-two inches ,bruegel has put several hundred human beings1 the largest of whom is less than two and one-half inches1 in a landscape setting of great beauty1 all done in such detail that one can count the spots on the giraffes far away across the river--and all seen with so careful a regard for values and design that it is a satisfactory picture from whatever distance it is regarded1 its details merging into the larger relations as one views it from further off4 ,craftsmanship of this type in painting can go no farther4 ,illustration3 8,,dulle ,,griet40 #aefd4 ,,antwerp1 ,,van ,,den ,,bergh ,,collection #c4 ,the cause of his leaving ,antwerp was his marriage1 which took place in #aefc4 ,his choice had fallen upon the daughter of his first master1 ,pieter ,coeck4 ,twice during his brief notice on ,bruegel1 ,van ,mander refers to the fact that 8he had1 while she was still small1 often carried her in his arms40 ,her mother1 after the father's death1 had removed to ,brussels and there successfully engaged in her own profession of miniature painting2 in consenting to the marriage she 8stipulated that ,bruegel should leave ,antwerp and settle down in ,brussels1 in order that he might efface former love-affairs from his eyes and his mind40 ,in this marriage was the beginning of what has been well called the ,bruegel dynasty4 ,the two sons produced copies and variations of their father's paintings in such abundance that it is an exceptional picture gallery in ,europe which does not boast its 8,breughel le ,vieux02 and these sons in their turn fathered a dozen more painters4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,tower ,,of ,,babel4 #aefc4 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,the ,,carrying ,,of ,,the ,,cross4 #aefd4 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,the ,,carrying ,,of ,,the ,,cross 7,,detail7 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,carrying ,,of ,,the ,,cross 7,,detail7 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,adoration ,,of ,,the ,,kings4 #aefd4 ,,london1 ,,national ,,gallery ,but of them all1 none approached the greatness of their original1 whose six years of married life were filled by the creation of masterpieces--of realistic observation in the ,wedding ,feast and the ,peasant ,dance2 of sheer imagination in the ,dulle ,griet and the ,triumph of ,death2 of narrative power in the ,massacre of the ,innocents2 of the purest pictorialism in the ,conversion of ,paul2 of the indescribable ,carrying of the ,cross2 of realism1 imagination1 emotion and thought merged into the large harmonies of that great series of five paintings1 the ,months4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,misanthrope4 #aefe4 ,,naples1 ,,national ,,museum ,while he was achieving all this ordered beauty of art1 the disorders of the life around him were increasing at a fatally rapid pace4 ,in ,ghent a mob sacked the ,abbey of ,saint ,peter and1 made drunk by the wine of its cellars and the intoxication of destructiveness1 ran smashingly at large through the city4 ,in ,antwerp another mob totally destroyed the rich and famous church of ,notre ,dame4 ,conflicts multiplied between ,catholics and ,protestants1 between civilians and soldiers2 bands of foreign mercenaries coursed through the country and open towns4 ,the ,duke of ,alva's execution fires cast lurid lights upon the ruin and decimation of what had once been the most prosperous region of ,europe4 ,of ,bruegel's own reactions to all this his biographer1 writing at a time when it was almost a well-forgotten nightmare1 makes no mention4 ,van ,mander's single sentence of direct characterization is this3 8,he was a very quiet and skilful man1 who spoke little but was sociable in society1 and loved to frighten his companions1 often also his own pupils1 with all kinds of goblin noises44440 ,this does little to round out the portrait of ,bruegel the man1 for once more the emphasis is thrown upon that droll and amusing side of his nature which seems to have appealed most to his own circle and thence been transmitted to ,van ,mander4 ,but that ,bruegel was intensely aware of the tragedies about him is evident enough in his works4 ,the things he saw for himself are set down in such pictures as the ,massacre of the ,innocents1 yet with such an all-sufficing objectiveness that it requires an effort of mind to realize that that very convincingness comes from his having felt the tragic reality he records4 ,but it is impossible to escape from the overwhelmingly personal quality of the thoughts set forth in the hell-mouth horrors of the ,dulle ,griet and the apocalyptic terrors of the ,triumph of ,death4 ,moreover1 ,van ,mander writes that ,bruegel had made many other 8inventions0 which were 8so satirical and mordant that on his death-bed he ordered them burnt by his wife1 either from repentance or from fear that his wife would get into trouble on account of them40 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,proverb ,,of ,,the ,,bird-,,nester4 #aefd-fe8 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,not many months before this happened the people of the ,low ,countries commenced their final effort of revolt which was to establish their freedom not until eleven years later4 ,bruegel left a world that was hardly less black than the death into which he descended with open eyes4 ,at that very moment ,montaigne was setting about to depict one entire man with a vision as veracious as that of ,bruegel2 ,cervantes was soon to rival in words ,bruegel's power of making the fantastic real2 and only forty years later ,shakespeare was to accomplish a re-creation of human life that is more complete than ,bruegel's simply because the medium of literature itself permits a more comprehensive embodiment of the soul of man than is possible to the medium of paint4 ,and the painter who more than any other kept close to life belongs in the company of these three4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,triumph ,,of ,,death4 #aefe ,,or #aeff4 ,,madrid1 ,,prado ,illustration3 ,,the ,,triumph ,,of ,,death 7,,detail7 #d4 ,the subject-matter of ,bruegel's great paintings is limited only by the world and life4#b ,the whole cycle of nature is in them--the seasons as they pass over mountain1 plain and moving waters2 the dazzling beauty of the southern sea1 the northern cold4 ,the entire range of human life is in them2 somewhere in these multitudes every emotion finds its expressive gesture4 ,even all the animals that are intimately a part of human life are given in their degrees of individuality4 ,these pictures seem to set before the eye every experience possible to man4 #b ,the succeeding remarks upon ,bruegel's art and mind1 disregarding both the minor and the debatable works1 are based specifically upon the paintings which are characteristically great4 ,always a tale is being told1 but always it is story-telling of a very definite kind4 ,it is never a continuous narrative with a plot involving the same characters in different circumstances4 ,thus ,bruegel was never obliged to arrange successive episodes of the same story within one frame1 as the older painters had done4 ,all the things that happen in his paintings could happen--do happen--just as he shows them1 at the same time and in just the relationship to each other that he depicts4 ,he always observes time unity and pulls together his wealth of episode and by-play through unity of theme4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,triumph ,,of ,,death 7,,detail7 ,but on a given theme1 at first1 he attempted to say everything than can be said about it4 ,the picture in ,berlin illustrates seventy proverbs2 the ,children's ,games is said to contain every one of the one hundred and fifty-four varieties of play listed by ,rabelais as the games of ,gargantua2 the ,tower of ,babel has been called a builders' handbook2 the ,massacre of the ,innocents apparently depicts every possible attitude of parental grief and frenzy4 ,this exuberance of episode1 this encyclopedic narrative utterance1 had its literary counterpart in the book just mentioned2 it was in full accord with the taste of the time1 and ,bruegel's personal aptitude had been fostered and disciplined by his long succession of drawings for the plates published by ,cock4 ,for the paintings of this type he has thought out every possible visual aspect of his story-matter and swept them all into a unity of design not less remarkable than his unity of theme4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,numbering ,,at ,,bethlehem4 #aeff4 ,,brussels1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,the ,,massacre ,,of ,,the ,,innocents4 #aeff8 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,the astounding thing to be noted just here is the completeness with which such an excessive amount of anecdote is arranged into a functioning organism of narrative4 ,in the ,carrying of the ,cross the movement of every one of the five hundred figures1 the very expression of every face1 is determined by a completely organized story-action4 ,all the figures1 even the minutest ones1 play their parts in the whole design as such2 but their momentary relations as human beings1 equally complex1 have been thought out and set down with equal thoroughness4 ,every episode is a bar1 every gesture a note1 in ,bruegel's orchestrated narrative4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,massacre ,,of ,,the ,,innocents 7,,detail7 ,but other paintings show that ,bruegel realized the fundamental weakness of this--the weakness of diversity of visual motive1 distraction from the pictorial whole4 ,he exhibited a tendency towards the elimination of all side-play1 towards the reduction of subject-matter to a single motive and a reliance upon emotional unity for the abiding impression4 ,his picture-making is still story-telling in that something happens in terms of human action2 but it is a single and casual event1 and the main interest is shifted from events to design and color as the expression of mood4 ,in the ,months he forgot all about narrative complexity for its own sake1 fixed his attention on the pure pictorial beauty of people and of nature1 and sought only the emotional meaning of his theme4 #e4 ,the nature of ,bruegel's work previous to taking up painting is written at large and in detail over his early technical habits1 but in these also can be traced a development corresponding to the change just noted in subject-matter4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,massacre ,,of ,,the ,,innocents 7,,detail7 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,fall ,,of ,,icarus4 ,,brussels1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,the ,,conversion ,,of ,,saint ,,paul4 #aefg4 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,in the earlier pictures color in general is conceived somewhat as the worker in mosaic is compelled by his material to conceive it--as a weaving-together of brilliant bits of pure color into a color design which is itself thought out independently of other technical qualities4 ,there is harmony and richness1 but there is not that melting tonality which afterwards came to be looked upon as the last word in painting4 ,above all else1 there is an unbelievable brilliancy1 especially where ,bruegel made a lavish use of vermilion4 ,the chain of soldiers woven through the multitude in the ,carrying of the ,cross is one of the most daring things to be found in painting2 but for general sumptuousness of color approaching to the fusion of later times there is1 outside of the ,months1 no equal in ,bruegel's work to the ,conversion of ,paul4 ,and always it is color used for its own sake1 with great sensuous delight4 ,yet always1 again excepting the ,months1 it is color laid on to form which has already been conceived as drawing2 the color1 superb in itself1 follows the form superbly2 but the color and the drawing exist independently of one another4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,wine ,,of ,,saint ,,martin 7,,fragment74 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,at the beginning of his painting career it was his drawing especially which was determined by his work for the engravers4 ,for the masculine style of engraving that prevailed in his day the preparatory drawings had to show absolute precision of outline4 ,the edges of everything had to be clean and unmistakable in order that the engraver might know what was intended2 the artist of the first instance had to make it impossible for the engraver to mistake his meaning as to this contour or that shape4 ,drawing in this manner for years before he began to paint1 ,bruegel necessarily continued to do so afterwards4 ,this accounts for the prevailingly silhouette character of his multitudes of tiny figures4 ,often-times1 even from the beginning1 the form that meets the eye within the shape is substantially filled out without being accompanied by the feeling of all-aroundness2 but a full three-dimensional quality is more and more often attained until in the ,paul1 again1 it fills the picture to a degree elsewhere unequalled in ,bruegel's work4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,parable ,,of ,,the ,,blind ,,men4 #aefh4 ,,naples1 ,,national ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,the ,,land ,,of ,,cockaigne4 #aefg4 ,,munich1 ,,alte ,,pinakothek ,illustration3 ,,the ,,cripples4 #aefh4 ,,paris1 ,,louvre ,but another consequence of his early professional training--and a consequence which enabled him to accomplish some of his most amazing feats--was his skill in composition4 ,his training in draftsmanship gave him the power to render exactly all details that contribute to individuality of character1 and the simultaneous training in composition taught him how to arrange immense numbers of such individualized figures without loss of mass unity4 ,was it the ,alpine mountain-sides or merely the upper window of a house on a village square that suggested to him the device of a slightly elevated viewpoint8 ,it is this more than anything else that enables him to impose upon his multitudes that order of art by which may be expressed the disorder of life2 and it is this that gives him his long perspectives of village streets or far horizons dominated by oblique lines4 ,these last1 starkly visible at first and gradually becoming more broken and concealed1 constitute the characteristic mark of ,bruegel the designer4 ,but it is in design that there is to be discerned the least amount of technical advance on ,bruegel's part2 what he learned before he began to paint seems to have come nearer to sufficing him in design than in drawing or in color4 ,his composition scheme in the set of the ,months is shockingly1 though intentionally1 repetitious2 in the hands of a less vigorous artist it must quickly have become the deadest recipe4 ,he divides his panel into two practically equal parts by a bold diagonal from one upper corner to the opposite lower one2 one of these parts he fills with things and people seen close at hand1 and the other with a far-spreading panorama4 ,and he does it five times over with such freshness that doing it seven times more does not seem beyond his powers4 ,but the design remains a pattern1 conceived in the same way as the large composite landscapes done soon after his return from ,rome4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,magpie ,,on ,,the ,,gallows4 #aefh4 ,,darmstadt1 ,,museum ,in drawing and color1 on the other hand1 the ,months show a marked departure from earlier habits in the direction of an essentially modern practice4 ,in the drawing as such there is an increase in looseness with no loss of surety2 tightness is sacrificed1 but not precision4 ,the figures are still silhouettes to a great extent1 but there is an approach to the coalescence of color and drawing4 ,in color by itself there is ever an opposition of large areas of some shade of brown and some shade of green1 and a weaving of these areas together by bits of each color in the other and of other colors in both4 ,though there is never the full impressionistic fusing of edges in atmosphere1 there is yet a decided approximation to the vision of a genuinely naturalistic landscape painter1 as distinguished from the vision of a draftsman or a miniaturist4 ,while this is true1 and must be accounted to ,bruegel as a merit1 an evidence of mental and technical growth1 it is still in a measure unfair to the never-failing largeness and unity of vision in the earlier work4 ,whether the other qualities of this work be regarded as merits or defects in themselves depends1 of course1 upon the technical tenets or preferences of him who makes the judgment4 ,but in ,bruegel they were neither merits nor defects2 they were characteristics which had to be present in his pictures if he painted at all4 ,they were necessitated by the time in which he lived and by his professional practice previous to painting4 ,they were as much a part of him as his fondness for telling stories2 and in the fluctuations of taste stranger things have already happened than would be the return of even this latter element to professional as well as popular favor4 ,illustration3 ,,wedding ,,feast4 #aefh8 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,wedding ,,feast 7,,detail7 #f4 ,in ,bruegel's time story-telling in pictures generally was still one of the principal means of communicating ideas--even1 perhaps mainly1 ideas that were not inherently pictorial2 prints were still the nearest things to books in popular circulation4 ,moreover1 a nation living under the necessity of never speaking out openly on either politics or religion naturally resorted to symbol1 the concrete proverb or the image that said one thing and meant another4 ,the print of the big and little fish not only meant that the great oppressed the small but carried an idea beyond the words of the proverb in showing the big fish ripped up and disgorging2 and upon a people so apt at interpreting images the significance of that would not be lost4 ,this people could not only take a hearty enjoyment of the good things of life but they could also face the whole of it without shrinking from any part of it1 whether of grossness or of terror4 ,for the latter1 indeed1 they even had a gusto and the former they laughed away with a saving healthiness4 ,the distinguishing mark of their living and their thinking was a robust realism4 ,illustration3 ,,peasant ,,dance4 #aefh8 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,peasant ,,dance 7,,detail7 ,in ,pieter ,bruegel there emerged from among them a man of genius in complete sympathy with their realistic attitude towards life2 knowing it from childhood1 he gave it in his art a more complete expression than it had ever had before4 ,the whole originality and fertility of his mind were for long expended upon feeding the popular taste not only for the familiar or exotic beauty of nature but also for a rough philosophy1 unorganized but none the less genuine2 and a habit so well established in him by years of labor would not vanish all at once even when more purely painter-like interests assumed for him a major importance4 ,his predecessors in painting had been realistic in their measure2 in them1 however1 realism was largely confined to details of execution and was more than counterbalanced by markedly idealistic conceptions4 ,even in the grotesqueries of ,bosch the older disparity between idea and embodiment existed2 the diabolism in them was only the obverse of the conventional religious idealism1 and its distance from a true realism of content remained the same4 ,when ,bruegel came to painting1 he both carried the manner of realism farther than his predecessors had done and informed that manner with its appropriately realistic matter1 bringing about a new harmony between the body and the spirit of the art4 ,he became the first complete realist in the history of painting4 ,illustration3 ,,marine4 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,the ,fall of the ,rebel ,angels is the nearest thing to a rule-proving exception among ,bruegel's great works1 the single one which exhibits any of the older disparity between container and content2 and this picture1 great as it is1 could vanish without impairing in the least ,bruegel's essential greatness4 ,to examine the ,berlin ,proverbs in detail is to get a feeling of being among mad folks because so many of the sayings here illustrated turn upon outlandish actions2 but as a picture it is a piece of masterly realistic sanity showing a whole village1 in which some of the inhabitants happen to be crazy1 intensely busy about its own affairs4 ,the ,triumph of ,death1 so far from being a piece of wild and gross fancy1 is actually the lucid statement of an idea as true as any gesture in the picture2 it is precisely the relentlessness of its realism in thought as well as in embodiment which frightens people into calling it untrue4 ,the latter two paintings only show that if an artist is realist enough1 if he penetrates sufficiently into the actual1 he necessarily becomes imaginative2 they only reiterate and strengthen ,bruegel's right to be considered the supreme realist in painting4 ,illustration3 ,,fleeing ,,shepherd4 #aefi8 ,,philadelphia1 ,,johnson ,,collection ,part of his realism is his refusal to depict what he did not feel4 ,only once did he venture upon any of the religious emotionalism that had played so large a part in the work of his predecessors1 and then he found the emotion so foreign to his own feelings that he openly borrowed the imagery of it2 in relation to the great panoramic realism of the ,carrying of the ,cross1 the group of mourning women remains a mere formalism1 dissociated in spirit and in manner from all about it4 ,jesus himself is simply an unfortunate creature whose approaching execution is the pretext for this holiday4 ,what passes for the conversion of ,paul might be the delusion of a man knocked in the head on falling from a shying horse2 there is about the event none of the conventional supernaturalism because for ,bruegel that sort of thing was not real4 ,the religious subject as such disappears from his work2 and this1 coming after the ecstatic idealisms of his predecessors1 amounts to the expression of an idea concerning the significance--or lack of it--inherent in the churchly religion4 ,he will have nothing to do with what is not human2 not even nature enters into the great paintings except as a setting that enhances1 by sympathy or contrast1 the emotional life of human beings4 ,to these1 whom he knows and loves1 ,bruegel gives himself wholly1 to share in their sorrows and their joys4 ,his religion is that of the great humanists in all ages1 and his faith is given only to life itself4 ,illustration3 ,,dark ,,day 7,,january874 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,,dark ,,day 7,,detail7 ,part of his realism is the robust laughter which is the only solution for the fix in which human beings find themselves4 ,it is the spirit that animated ,rabelais in describing the birth of his hero and ,shakespeare in creating ,falstaff4 ,to come closer home to ,bruegel1 perhaps1 it is the spirit of ,till ,eulenspiegel1 whose gross pleasanteries were probably relished by the painter along with the rest of his generation4 ,bruegel's passion for completeness in his realism abolishes privacy1 and the state of affairs brought to pass by this slicing away of all walls is saved only by humor4 ,humor is the safety-valve for a spirit resolute to probe life to its last refuge--to probe life1 but not to break through by main force1 as attempted by later realists so-called4 ,illustration3 ,,hunters ,,in ,,the ,,snow 7,,february874 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,another element in ,bruegel's realism is the objectivity of his work4 ,van ,mander's anecdote already quoted shows that ,bruegel went among the peasants1 not as a professional artist in search of material1 but as a participator in their life2 and the great pictures themselves strikingly bear this out4 ,this is not to say that ,bruegel never worked directly from life1 for there are many drawings which could not have been done otherwise--a team of horses resting1 soldiers standing in the way1 old market-women squatting beside their wares4 ,but when he came to paint the great pictures1 ,bruegel worked from a memory stocked with the gestures and actions of people who are unconscious of being watched4 ,bruegel's mind was centered upon their life and he was concerned with technic hardly beyond the point where it would enable him to crowd all their life into his given space and shape4 ,his concentration upon the story he was telling1 from the encyclopedic narrative of the early works to the simple and straightforward emotionalism of the ,months1 put him on the crest of a wave of energy which carried him through many an undertaking that would have been impossible for a more self-conscious man4 ,we who see the pictures now are unconscious of the painter because he was himself lost in his subject2 and because of this1 also1 we are unconscious of ourselves4 8,no glance ever strays across the footlights to the audience10 wrote ,meier-,graefe of ,hogarth's scenes4 ,in ,bruegel's work there are no actors1 no footlights and no audience4 ,there is only life and participation in life by painter and by us4 ,and everywhere in these pictures it is the life of ,bruegel's own time4 ,his predecessors had clothed religious themes in contemporary dress1 but the outer and the inner remained separate things2 ,bruegel1 retaining the outer1 put into it its own proper content4 ,he ousted religious stories by contemporary stories4 ,these he painted so completely that a thorough sociological knowledge of the age might be founded upon or tested by his pictures4 ,the whole life of the time is set down by a hand that never falsifies1 that swerves neither to the right of idealization nor to the left of caricature4 ,yet to leave him as a painter of contemporary manners only would be almost as false to his greatness as to consider him only as ,bruegel the ,droll4 ,for he penetrates below the temporary appearances of his time to the permanent in human nature4 ,his pictures can be a means of access to the life of his age1 to be sure2 but no lover of them would think of using them in this fashion4 ,the important thing is that they give access to a life that is of more than one age2 under the costume of the time exists the same humanity that now wears another dress4 ,in giving himself over so unreservedly to the impermanent1 ,bruegel took what was for him the only way to the permanent4 ,this cannot be captured by going out after a vague and unlocalized something called life in general2 what is presented to the artist for his use is always life in particular4 ,there is an all-life in the steady and swelling succession of human generations2 but the only means of access to that is the now-life4 ,the great artist's major accomplishment lies in revealing the universal through the particular1 the permanent through the transitory1 the inevitable through the accidental4 ,this ,bruegel does2 and how well he does it is to be found by analyzing the thought behind his varied rendering of events and people4 ,even in his early pictures each creature has his own individuality and yet is part of the crowd1 which remains a crowd in spite of all detail2 each individual retains his own value of personality and yet is integrated into a collective being4 ,bruegel's minute accuracy of drawing expresses his love for the individual as such2 his great masses of people express his desire to see life largely and as an interwoven whole4 ,moreover1 the device of making the ostensible subject of a picture an almost invisible incident in it is an expression of an idea as to the relative importance of the individual and what happens to him4 ,though the actions of the ,carrying of the ,cross and the ,conversion of ,paul do actually center around the subject-incident1 the incident itself is reduced almost to the vanishing-point2 so that the story emphasis is thrown entirely upon the larger life of which the incident is only the temporary focus4 ,the ,fall of ,icarus likewise expresses this heresy against conventional thinking as to what is truly sublime2 only here the unimportance of a particular event is made more emphatic by such a detail as the position of the shepherd as well as by the large indifference of this great luminous calm expanse of land and sea and sky4 ,illustration3 ,,hunters ,,in ,,the ,,snow 7,,detail7 ,illustration3 ,,haymaking 7,,june874 ,,raudnitz1 ,,collection ,,of ,,prince ,,lobkowitz ,moreover1 the sequence of changes in the relative importance of the human figures in the paintings is but the story of ,bruegel's developing conception of the relative importance of man in the scheme of things4 ,in one group of pictures the individual1 though fully personalized1 is a part of the crowd and the crowd a mass of insects swarming over the landscape4 ,in another group of large-figured peasant subjects man is all-important1 filling the whole and shutting nature out4 ,the former are amazing1 and one can hardly get too much of them2 the latter are interesting and one likes them long4 ,but for the final expression of his mind one must turn to the set of the ,months2 these five1 with the addition of the ,paul and the ,icarus1 form the summit of ,bruegel's art4 ,in them ,bruegel reached the solution of the two problems of his life1 the life of nature and the life of man2 and the solution was the life of man in nature4 ,the ,months sum up his life's endeavor both in the material he had all along been dealing with and in the conceptions between which all along he had been alternating4 ,they are full of motives and incidents taken from his earlier works--the church he drew so often1 children at their games1 the great stretches of landscape that he loved4 ,but all things are adjusted to one another in a new way2 the people are seen neither too large nor too small1 but in a perfect relationship to an immensely embracing nature2 and each picture is pervaded by an unbroken harmony of mood4 ,this set marks the attainment of final insight into everything that had concerned him2 they constitute his acceptance and affirmation of life4 ,illustration3 ,courtesy of the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,,the ,,harvesters 7,,august874 ,,new ,,york1 ,,metropolitan ,,museum ,,of ,,art ,illustration3 ,,the ,,return ,,of ,,the ,,herds 7,,november874 ,,vienna1 ,,museum ,illustration3 ,courtesy of the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art4 ,,the ,,harvesters 7,,detail7 #g4 ,the more ,bruegel's work is studied the stronger grows the feeling that almost everything may be attributed to him4 ,to go to ,vienna and through that group of fifteen pictures to come into direct contact with his mind across three hundred and fifty years is to be convinced that his is one of the inexhaustible minds of the world4 ,the material brilliancy of the painting is more than matched by the brilliancy of the creative soul behind them4 ,whether he himself was conscious of all that can now be perceived in his work does not much matter2 whether it came there with him aware or unaware1 it is enough to make him superbly great4 ,but this much is true3 the more his mind is apprehended1 the more vast and purposeful it appears4 ,he was fortunate in finding his means of expression in what was then a popular art2 everything about that art was so alive that it drew to itself some of the greatest minds of the time4 ,there existed a tremendous amount of give-and-take between the artist and his age1 and this degree of interaction it was which had most to do with endowing both art and artist with vitality2 they were fed from sources outside of and larger than themselves4 ,thus it was that ,bruegel attained to so comprehensive an expression of himself and his age together that his work has become one of the permanent things of art4 ,each picture is a completely functioning organism with several different aspects4 ,there is the aspect of story-telling1 that of technical picture-making and that of philosophic thought4 ,each aspect functions harmoniously with the others4 ,not only can one analyze out at will the elements proper to each aspect1 but one can move from one to another without any feeling of shifting gear or changing speed4 7,the one exception is the group of mourning women in the ,carrying of the ,cross47 ,all these aspects function at the same mental rate4 ,they are all interwoven into powerful wholes4 ,every picture is a world in itself1 and coming to know them is one of the completest experiences that can be found anywhere in the art of painting4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,return ,,of ,,the ,,herds 7,,detail7 ,yet even with this completeness of expression attained1 one has before ,bruegel's work a feeling of still more behind1 an immensity of mind larger than any art can be4 ,it is the feeling one has before ,michelangelo1 but not before ,raphael2 before ,shakespeare1 but not before ,marlowe4 ,the greater ones are not only greater in their art1 but they have something left over in themselves which their art suggests but does not directly express4 ,of this greater company is ,pieter ,bruegel4 ,there are purer painters1 but for the purity of their art they pay the price of going without something of importance to a complete life4 ,and even their gain in intensity seems hardly a gain in the face of ,bruegel's intensity on all the levels of his completeness4 ,he transposes all life into his pictures in a scale of relative relationship that preserves the values of human life itself4 ,every other painter lacks something or has something in excess4 ,bruegel is the most comprehensive and the best balanced1 the most energetic and the mellowest4 ,of all painters he is the greatest realist1 and of them all the most humane4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,return ,,of ,,the ,,herds 7,,detail7 ,,an ,,annotated ,,bibliography ,the object of the following book-list is to mention not everything that has been printed about ,pieter ,bruegel but only such volumes and articles as have definite value4 ,the major cause of its shortness1 however1 is the fact that the literature of the subject is surprisingly small in quantity2 in ,english1 particularly1 there is almost nothing beyond short paragraphs in some histories of art and the usual unilluminating brevities of general reference works4 ,pieter ,bruegel l',ancien4 ,son ,oeuvre et son ,temps4 ,par ,ren ,van ,bastelaer et ,georges ,hulin ,de ,loo4 ,bruxelles3 ,g4 ,van ,oest ,cie43 #aijg4 ,this1 the first volume to be published on ,bruegel1 remains the standard work4 ,for the handsomeness and completeness of its reproductions combined with the accuracy and thoroughness of its text1 treating every aspect of the painter's life and work1 it is a notable accomplishment in book-making and in scholarship4 ,what has since been written and the pictures that have since been discovered still do no more than supplement certain phases of it2 nor can it be superseded until someone is prepared to give time and money to a thorough search of ,european galleries and private collections4 ,it is now1 however1 somewhat difficult to obtain4 ,les ,estampes de ,peter ,bruegel l',ancien4 ,par ,ren ,van ,bastelaer4 ,bruxelles3 ,g4 ,van ,oest ,cie43 #aijh4 ,within its chosen field this volume also remains the standard and needs only supplementing by later researches4 ,its #bgh plates reproduce all the prints then thought to be by ,bruegel or after his designs4 ,pierre ,bruegel l',ancien4 ,par ,charles ,bernard4 ,bruxelles3 ,g4 ,van ,oest ,cie43 #aijh4 ,this1 which appeared immediately after the two preceding volumes1 may fairly be described as a good popularization of them1 with additional historical material drawn from other sources4 ,the thirty reproductions are very good half-tones2 the text gives a satisfactory account of the painter's life and times1 although there is too much reliance upon the mere subject-matter of the pictures and although parts of ,van ,mander's clumsy narrative are transposed into ,french of debatable suavity4 ,it is the only generally available biography in ,french4 ,to any reader of it my indebtedness to it for facts 7other than those given by ,van ,mander7 and my occasional difference of interpretation will be equally evident4 ,der ,bauern-,bruegel4 ,von ,w4 ,hausenstein4 ,mnchen ,leipzig3 ,r4 ,piper ,co43 #aiaj4 ,this is commended by ,herr ,friedlnder 7see eighth item7 as a portrait of the man ,bruegel2 as a discussion of his work1 however1 it has been superseded in ,german by ,herr ,friedlnder's own book4 8,the ,adoration of the ,kings0 by ,pieter ,brueghel the ,elder4 ,by ,c4 ,j4 ,holmes4 ,in ,the ,burlington ,magazine2 vol xxxviii1 no4 ccxv3 ,london3 ,february #aiba4 ,the ,harvesters by ,pieter ,bruegel the ,elder4 ,by ,bryson ,burroughs4 ,in ,the ,bulletin of the ,metropolitan ,museum of ,art3 vol4 xvi1 no4 #e3 ,new ,york3 ,may #aiba4 ,the fact that these two articles ostensibly deal each with a single picture should not obscure either their general interest or their significance as indications and instruments of the contemporary tendency to assign to ,bruegel a higher rank than he has had heretofore4 ,von ,eyck bis ,bruegel4 ,studien zur ,geschichte der ,niederlndischen ,malerei4 ,von ,max ,j4 ,friedlnder4 ,berlin3 ,julius ,bard3 #aiba4 7,of ,bruegel3 p4 #afi to end74 ,the main point of interest about ,bruegel in this book is that the author gives a catalogue of paintings which differs considerably1 both in its omissions and in its additions1 from that given by ,m4 ,hulin 7see first item74 ,pieter ,bruegel4 ,von ,max ,j4 ,friedlnder4 ,berlin3 ,propylen-,verlag3 #aiba4 ,this is the standard general work in ,german1 and contains a trustworthy translation of the entire text of ,van ,mander concerning ,bruegel4 ,even those who do not read ,german might well possess this book for the clearness and frequent brilliancy of its #aja half-tone reproductions1 the majority of which are from drawings and prints4 ,herr ,friedlnder is the only continental scholar so far whose work takes cognizance of the picture now in the ,metropolitan ,museum4 ,bruegel4 ,von ,kurt ,pfister4 ,leipzig3 ,insel-,verlag3 #aiba4 ,this short essay merits notice as a piece of writing4 ,the #gh half-tone reproductions are not very clear1 but they include more than a dozen which are in neither ,friedlnder nor ,bernard4 ,pieter ,bruegel4 ,vierzehn ,faksimiledrucke nach ,zeichnungen und ,aquarellen4 ,mit einer ,einleitung von ,kurt ,pfister4 ,mnchen3 ,r4 ,piper ,co43 #aibb4 ,this handsome series of large plates is a publication of the ,mares-,gesellschaft and for faithfulness in facsimile reproduction is not to be surpassed4 ,pieter ,brueghel's 8,fall of ,icarus0 in the ,brussels ,museum4 ,by ,arthur ,edwin ,bye4 ,in ,art ,studies3 ,medival ,renaissance and ,modern3 ,no4 #a4 ,princeton3 ,university ,press3 #aibc4 ,a sympathetic though not stylistically distinguished essay in appreciation1 written around the ,fall of ,icarus in the ,brussels ,museum4 ,renaissance ,art4 ,by ,elie ,faure4 ,new ,york3 ,harper ,brothers3 #aibc4 7,of ,bruegel3 pp4 #bgf-bhf74 ,this author's habitual saturation with his subject-matter has enabled him to convey the multitudinous quality to be felt in many of ,bruegel's pictures and also to adumbrate the humanity of soul behind them2 but he has almost nothing to say about the more narrowly sthetic merits which permit of ,bruegel being ranked among the great2 and even on the score of subject-matter ,bruegel's livingness is almost smothered under a rhetoric made sluggish with anecdotal detail4 ,breughel4 ,by ,aldous ,huxley4 ,in ,the ,calendar of ,modern ,letters3 vol4 #a1 no4 #f3 ,london3 ,august #aibe4 ,this essay is a little sermon on the virtue of comprehensiveness in the appreciation of art1 with ,bruegel as an ideal text4 ,it is not itself a comprehensive presentation of the painter or his work and it has very few traces of the verbal brilliancy which has had so much to do with putting this author's novels in the best-selling class2 but it may make the name of ,bruegel known to many who are not in a position to penetrate his work on their own account4 ,i note a curious slip in the transposition of titles between the ,brussels ,numbering at ,bethlehem and the ,vienna ,massacre of the ,innocents4 ,die ,zeichnungen ,pieter ,bruegels4 ,von ,karl ,tolnai4 ,mnchen3 ,r4 ,piper ,co43 #aibe4 ,this book has immediately taken rank as the standard authority on the drawings2 its #ajd large half-tone plates reproduce every drawing listed in its catalogue4 ,pieter ,bruegel der ,aeltere4 ,siebenunddreissig ,farbenlichtdrucke nach seinen ,hauptwerken in ,wien und eine ,einfhrung in seine ,kunst4 ,von ,max ,dvok4 ,wien3 ,oesterreichischen ,staatsdruckerei4 ,this wonderful production is just being completed2 its magnificent plates embody the utmost resources of modern color-printing4 ,an edition with the text translated into ,french is announced for the month of ,july1 and another with a translation into ,english is expected during the year4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the foregoing annotations are based upon actual reading and examination of the books and articles mentioned4 ,i think it well to append a few additional items which ,i have had no opportunity as yet to examine2 my study of the volumes already listed1 however1 leads me to believe that they possess interest and importance4 ,the words in italics at the end of each entry indicate its source among the books in the previous section4 99 99 99 99 99 ,pierre ,brueghel ,le ,vieux4 ,par ,henri ,hymans4 7,gazette des ,beaux-,arts3 ,paris3 #ahij et #ahia47 ,pfister3 ,bibliography4 ,les ,brueghel4 ,par ,emile ,michel4 ,paris3 #ahib4 ,van ,bastelaer ,hulin1 p4 #bid4 ,pieter ,brueghel der ,aeltere und sein ,kunstschaffen4 ,von ,alex ,l4 ,romdahl4 7,jahrbuch der ,kunsthistorischen ,sammlungen des ,allerhchsten ,kaiserhauses1 ,bd4 #be3 ,wien3 #aije47 ,tolnai and ,pfister3 ,bibliographies4 ,pieter ,bruegel im ,kupferstichkabinett zu ,berlin4 ,von ,ludwig ,burchard4 7,amtliche ,berichte aus der ,knigliche ,kunstsammlung in ,berlin1 ,bd4 #cd3 ,berlin3 #aiab-ac47 ,tolnai3 ,bibliography4 ,die ,niederlndische ,landschaftsmalerei von ,patinir bis ,bruegel4 ,von ,ludwig von ,baldass4 7,jahrbuch der ,kunsthistorischen ,sammlungen des ,allerhchsten ,kaiserhauses1 ,bd4 #cd3 ,wien3 #aiah47 ,tolnai3 ,bibliography4 ,der ,bauern-,bruegel und das ,deutsche ,sprichwort4 ,von ,wilhelm ,fraenger4 7,mnchen3 #aibc47 ,tolnai3 ,bibliography4 ,,notes ,the illustrations of ,bruegel's paintings accompanying this article are confined to those accepted as authentic by ,m4 ,hulin in his catalogue 7see ,bibliography1 first item71 with certain additional ones discovered since its publication4 ,seventeen of the paintings are positively dated2 the rest must be distributed through the eleven years of painting on other evidence4 ,wherever a date appears under an illustration1 it is the one assigned by the authority just mentioned1 with the exceptions noted4 ,the only alteration in the chronological order1 so far as that may be determined1 has been the grouping of the ,months at the end1 to correspond with the text1 in which they are treated as the summing-up of ,bruegel's work as a painter4 ,all the drawings reproduced are dated on the authority of ,herr ,tolnai 7see ,bibliography1 fourteenth item74 ,the following paragraphs give certain supplementary facts3 ,village ,marriage3 ,two copies by ,pieter ,,ii are known4 ,a comparison of this picture with them shows that the arm and hand of the man kneeling near the bottom of the stairway have been repainted 8for reasons of decency06 ,dancing ,peasant3 ,this is doubtful4 ,herr ,friedlnder considers it a copy2 ,m4 ,hulin leaves the matter undetermined1 but reproduces it4 ,descent of ,christ into ,limbo 7drawing73 ,herr ,tolnai says that the date and signature are apocryphal1 but assigns it to no other year4 ,flemish ,proverbs3 ,not known to ,m4 ,hulin2 date given on the authority of ,herr ,friedlnder4 ,battle ,between the ,israelites and the ,philistines3 also called ,the ,death of ,saul at the ,battle of ,gilboa4 ,the uncertainty of this date turns upon whether an extra figure can or can not be discerned at the end of the ,roman numerals4 ,dulle ,griet3 ,the literal subject is the quarrelsome woman1 ,terrible ,margaret1 she who frightens the devil himself4 ,the ,carrying of the ,cross3 ,also called ,the ,road to ,calvary4 ,the ,misanthrope3 ,also called ,the ,perfidy of the ,world4 ,the proverb lettered at the bottom is ,om dat de vverelt is soe ongetru ,daer on gha ic in den ru4 ,the translation is3 ,since the world is so untrustworthy1 ,i go in mourning4 ,the ,proverb of the ,bird-,nester3 ,the proverb is ,dije den nest vveet dije vveeten3 ,dije rooft1 dije heeten4 ,it may be translated3 ,who knows where the nest is has his knowledge2 who rifles it has possession4 ,the ,numbering at ,bethlehem3 ,also called ,the ,payment of ,tithes4 ,the ,fall of ,icarus3 ,not catalogued by ,m4 ,hulin4 ,here put next to the ,paul in order to follow the text1 in which these two are joined with the ,months as representing the height of ,bruegel's achievement4 ,the ,wine of ,saint ,martin3 ,admitted by ,m4 ,hulin1 but with strong doubts2 regarded as the fragment of a larger work2 done originally in tempera and repainted in oil1 perhaps in the seventeenth century4 ,the ,magpie on the ,gallows3 ,this picture was bequeathed by ,bruegel to his wife4 ,marine3 ,not dated by ,m4 ,hulin4 ,placed here because it appears to be unfinished1 and so possibly very late4 ,the ,months3 ,the months suggested in the titles given under the illustrations follow ,m4 ,hulin's catalogue4 ,herr ,friedlnder assigns that given as ,january to ,march1 the ,february to ,december1 the ,august 7,new ,york7 to ,july1 leaving the other two as given4 ,m4 ,hulin dates the whole set about #aefg4 ,the only trace among them of a date is on the picture in the ,metropolitan ,museum2 on the strength of this ,herr ,friedlnder assigns it positively to #aefe1 but ,mr4 ,burroughs is inclined to agree with ,m4 ,hulin4 ,in any case the violation of time order in placing this set last is not very great and the gain is considerable in giving a culminating impression of ,bruegel's art4 #b4 ,no paintings in ,bruegel's manner are reproduced which are definitely or even probably by the sons4 ,they are a multitude in themselves1 and are mostly attributed to the father4 ,they are to be met with everywhere1 from ,london to ,palermo1 from ,madrid to ,petrograd4 ,herr ,friedlnder authenticates 7without reproducing7 one in ,budapest and another in ,cskny4 ,in ,hampton ,court ,palace there is an extremely interesting smaller version of the ,vienna ,massacre of the ,innocents in which eatables are substituted for most of the children1 and a companion piece of coarser workmanship giving an entirely different picture of a massacre4 ,in ,vienna there are a dozen or more by the sons which throw much light on the entire question of ,bruegel's own pictures2 the most interesting of these is in the ,lichtenstein ,collection and is in the manner of the ,fleeing ,shepherd in ,philadelphia4 ,the problems raised by all these pictures are many and complex1 but the scope and intention of this essay did not permit of its touching upon such matters4 ,however1 there are all sorts of ways to spend life1 and not the least interesting way would be to go a-,bruegeling through ,europe4 ,erratum3 ,on page #cc the date of the ,massacre of the ,innocents should read #aeff787 instead of #aeef7874 ,the ,land of ,cockaigne1 reproduced on page #ci1 is now in the ,alte ,pinakothek in ,munich4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,fall ,,of ,,icarus 7,,detail7 ,illustration3 ,,master ,,and ,,pupil 7,,drawing74 ,,about #aefj-fa4 ,,vienna1 ,,albertina ,,the ,,arts ,a ,,monthly ,,magazine ,,of ,,art ,forbes ,watson1 ,editor ,william ,robb1 ,manager ,lloyd ,goodrich1 ,associate ,editor ,virgil ,barker1 ,european ,editor ,the ,arts is not exclusively a magazine of modern art or exclusively a magazine of the art of the past4 ,it is solely a magazine of art1 whenever or wherever produced4 ,its text is intelligent1 stimulating and readable1 and the essays which appear in its pages are permanent contributions to the literature of art4 ,in selecting its writers ,the ,arts endeavors to secure those who are authorities on their particular subjects but are also capable of writing freshly and directly about them--who are not so engrossed by the historical and archological side of art as to forget its supreme sthetic importance4 ,in its essays on the art of the past ,the ,arts does not confine itself within the conventional limits of the ,european tradition1 but recognizes in the art of the ,orient1 of ,africa1 or of aboriginal ,america the same qualities which exist in the art of the ,west4 ,in its treatment of contemporary art1 ,the ,arts attempts to present the work of the most vital artists of the present day1 whether radical or conservative1 the emphasis being placed not on the particular group or faction to which the artist may belong1 but upon the work itself4 ,realizing that one of the most important functions of a magazine is the discovery of new talent1 ,the ,arts has always opened its pages to the work of the most promising of the younger artists4 ,its policy is not to wait until an artist has achieved success1 but to be ahead of the crowd in affording recognition to the talented men of the future4 ,its regular departments1 such as reviews of current exhibitions and new art books1 keep its readers informed of the significant developments in the world of art4 ,although the bulk of its articles are devoted to painting1 sculpture1 architecture and the decorative arts1 ,the ,arts from time to time publishes essays in the fields of music1 drama or literature which it knows will be of interest to its readers--particularly on the subjects of stage design and the art of the films4 ,the written word1 however1 cannot convey all of the significance of a work of art4 ,for that reason it has been the policy of the magazine to make of each issue a series of illustrations which no artist or art lover can afford to be without4 ,every number of ,the ,arts contains fifty to sixty excellently printed reproductions of important works of art of the past or the present4 ,fifty cents a copy2 five dollars a year4 ,,the ,,arts ,,publishing ,,corporation #ai ,east #eith ,street ,new ,york1 ,n4 ,y4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,text enclosed by underscores is in italics 7italics74 ,text enclosed by pluses is in small caps 7small caps74 ,blank pages have been removed4 ,obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected4 ,errata have been applied4 ,the name ,michel ,angelo has been corrected to ,michelangelo ,the painting ,a ,village ,wedding is referred to as ,village ,marriage in the ,,notes4