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