Graphic worlds of Peter Bruegel the elder reproducing 64 engravings and a woodcut after designs by Peter Bruegel, the elder

272 Pages·1963·26.26 MB·English

by  Klein

Graphic Worlds of
Peter Bruegel
the Elder
Graphic Worlds of
Peter Bruegel
the Elder
Reproducing 63 Engravings and a Woodcut
after his Designs
Selected, Edited, and with Commentary By
H. Arthur Klein
Dover Publications, Inc.
Mineola, New York
For M. C. K.
Copyright
Copyright © 1963 by Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Bibliographical Note
Graphic Worlds of Peter Bruegel the Elder is a new work, first published by Dover Publications, Inc., in
1963 and reissued in 2014.
International Standard Book Number
eISBN-13: 978-0-486-79541-6
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-17907
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation 21132017 2014
www.doverpublications.com
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
AIDS IN ADVANCE
1. Title and Arrangement of this Book
2. Spelling the Name of the Artist
3. Pronouncing “Bruegel”
4. A Brief List of References, by Way of Bibliography
5. Abbreviations and Symbols
6. A Chronology of the Creative Life of Peter Bruegel the Elder
INTRODUCTION
I. OUTER WORLDS—NATURE AND MAN
THE WORLD OF LANDSCAPES
Preliminary Comments Plate 1. Alpine Landscape with Deep Valley
Plate 2. Saint Jerome in the Desert
Plate 3. Penitent Mary Magdalene
Plate 4. The Cunning Bird Catcher
Plate 5. Belgian Wagon
Plate 6. Country Concerns
Plate 7. Village amid Woods
Plate 8. Large Alpine Landscape
Plate 9. Landscape with Rabbit Hunters
THE WORLD OF STATELY SHIPS AND THE SEA
Preliminary Comments Plate 10. Man of War with Inscription “Die Scip
1564”
Plate 11. Man of War Seen Half from the Left
Plate 12. Man of War Sailing to the Right; above, the Fall of Icarus
Plate 13. Man of War Sailing to the Left; in Background a Town
Plate 14. Three Men of War before a Water Fortress
Plate 15. Three Men of War in a Tempest Sailing to the Right, with Arion
Plate 16. Man of War Seen between Two Galleys, with the Fall of Phaethon
Plate 17. Man of War with Three Small Boats
Plate 18. Man of War with Small Ships at Right and Left
THE WORLD OF FELLOW FLEMINGS: ARISTOCRATS, BURGHERS, VILLAGERS, AND
PEASANTS
Preliminary Comments Plate 19. Spring
Plate 20. Summer
Plate 21. Skaters before the Gate of St. George in Antwerp
Plate 22. The Fair of St. George’s Day
Plate 23. The Fair at Hoboken
Plate 24. The Wedding Dance
Plate 25. The Masquerade of Orson and Valentine
Plate 26. The Dirty Bride
Plate 27. Two Groups of Epileptics Going to the Right; and
Plate 28. Two Groups of Epileptics Going to the Left
II. INNER WORLDS—IMAGINATION, MORALITY, AND RELIGION
THE WORLD OF DROLLERIES, DIDACTICS, AND ALLEGORIES
Preliminary Comments Plate 29. Big Fish Eat Little Fish
Plate 30. The Ass at School
Plate 31. The Fight of the Money-bags and Strong-boxes
Plate 32. The Land of Cockaigne
Plate 33. The Peddler Pillaged by Apes
Plate 34. Everyman
Plate 35. The Poor Kitchen; and
Plate 36. The Rich Kitchen
Plate 37. The Witch of Malleghem
Plate 38. The Alchemist
Plate 39. The Triumph of Time
THE WORLD OF THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OR VICES
Preliminary Comments Plate 40. Avarice
Plate 41. Pride
Plate 42. Envy
Plate 43. Anger
Plate 44. Gluttony
Plate 45. Lechery
Plate 46. Sloth
THE WORLD OF THE SEVEN VIRTUES, PLUS ONE
Preliminary Comments Plate 47. Patience
Plate 48. Faith
Plate 49. Hope
Plate 50. Charity
Plate 51. Justice
Plate 52. Prudence
Plate 53. Fortitude
Plate 54. Temperance
THE WORLD OF THE APOCRYPHA, LEGENDS, AND LIVES OF THE SAINTS and
THE WORLD OF THE GOSPELS
Preliminary Comments Plate 55. The Descent into Limbo
Plate 56. The Death of the Virgin
Plate 57. St. James and the Magician Hermogenes
Plate 58. The Fall of the Magician
Plate 59. The Temptation of St. Anthony
Plate 60. Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultery
Plate 61. The Resurrection
Plate 62. Jesus and the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus
Plate 63. The Parable of the Good Shepherd
Plate 64. The Last Judgment
FOREWORD
This book is largely a labor of love.
The affair has been going on a long time—between the author and the works
of Bruegel—but in art as in amour what matters is intensity of experience rather
than mere duration.
Bruegel’s works have held for me an unfailing and unfading, yet not an
unchanging, fascination. New aspects have unfolded, year by year. The latest,
though not necessarily the last, has been discovery and exploration of his worlds
of graphic art—the engravings made from his drawings and the original
drawings themselves.
This book is an explanation in which I seek to reveal to myself and others just
what makes this artist seem wonderful.
The best of Bruegel engravings are in the following pages, yet not all of them
could be included. Space was limited, and the time came when each inclusion
had to be balanced by a deletion. To any readers whose favorites have been
excluded, I apologize, and assure them that my disappointment is probably little
less than their own.
In compiling and writing this book, it was not my idea that the Bruegel “fine
prints” are superior to the Bruegel paintings. On the other hand, the graphic
works are not incidental to or unimportant alongside the paintings. Who would
want to give up either? It is good fortune that modern methods of reproduction
make it possible for those who are interested to have copies of both, for their
bookshelves and walls.
Good fortune, too, has attended the labors on the project in many ways. As
usual, it took the form of people. First, my wife. . . . She shares my persistent
Bruegelism and Bruegelizing, even to the extent of agreeing that home wouldn’t
be quite the same without reproductions of paintings such as “Return of the
Herd,” “Hunters in the Snow,” and “The Corn Harvest” on our walls, where just
a glance can quickly answer the inner question “Are they as good now as they
were?”; and the answer remains always, “Yes, probably even better. . . .” This
book is hers in ways too numerous to mention.
The many acknowledgments within will show that the volume is in itself a
bound compilation of evidence of the help and good will of our long-time
friends, Jake Zeitlin and Josephine Ver Brugge Zeitlin, ardent Bruegelers both.
Their great collection of Bruegel engravings is surpassed only by their
generosity in sharing it all—prints, books, information, encouragement. (My
only problem, I confess, in arranging photographic reproduction of prints
belonging to the Zeitlins has been an unmistakable internal gnawing sensation,
whose nature I understood when studying Bruegel’s analysis of the Sin of Envy,
reproduced here. . . .) Abundant thanks to the Zeitlins!
Good fortune also took the form of the superb exhibition of Bruegel prints and
drawings at the Los Angeles County Museum in the spring of 1961 under the
direction of Ebria Feinblatt, Curator of Prints and Drawings. Her kindness and
cooperation helped much; so too did the splendid catalog she compiled. It is
referred to repeatedly here. Every art library should have a copy, in my opinion.
My indebtedness to the writings of such scholars as Fritz Grossmann, C. G.
Stridbeck, Adriaan J. Barnouw, etc., is repeatedly acknowledged in the text, and
often implied even when not specifically stated.
Thanks for permission to photograph and reproduce illustrations are here
given gladly to many people, including E. Gunter Troche, Director, Achenbach
Foundation for Graphic Arts, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San
Francisco; Gertrude D. Howe, Assistant Curator in Charge of Loans,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Eleanor A. Sayre, Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston; Perry B. Cott, Chief Curator, and Katharine Shepard, Assistant
Curator of Graphic Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Also to Lt.
Colonel William Stirling of Keir, Scotland, and London, England.
Special gratitude goes also to Dr. Martin Grotjahn, superlative walker and
talker, for sharing fascinating insights regarding the meanings-within-meanings
in the paintings of Jerome Bosch, spiritual ancestor of so much in the Bruegel
engravings. Had not this book, by plan, been devoted solely to engravings based
on Bruegel originals, it would have included also several engravings based on
originals by Bosch, or by Bosch-via-Bruegel, or Bruegel-based-on-Bosch. In
fact, sometime in the future I hope to do for that intriguing group of engravings
and for surviving Bosch drawings something comparable to this Bruegel
presentation.
It is quite literally a privilege to be able to express appreciation for the
reference material made available by the Library of the University of California
at Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Public Library; and, most abundantly, by that