The following pages present some aids to easier enjoyment and use of what follows. This is material which might have been placed, appendix-fashion, in the rear; however, it seems better to acquaint the reader with its presence and nature in advance. It is not necessarily intended to be read first, but rather to be referred to whenever need or desire arises.
The aids comprise six sections in the following order:
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
A general introduction follows these aids, an introduction designed to lead directly into Bruegel’s wonderful worlds, beginning with the landscapes, and continuing through seven other sections, with a total of 64 reproductions of prints from engravings.
Graphic Worlds of Peter Bruegel the Elder was chosen as title in order to emphasize the diversity of subject matter in the drawings by Bruegel from which were made the engravings here reproduced. This diversity is here presented in eight sections, an arrangement based solely on the writer’s considered judgment and not on any indications deriving from Bruegel or his publishers.
Within most of those sections the order of the individual pictures follows the sequence of their numbering in Les Estampes de Peter Bruegel l’Ancien, the basic catalog of Bruegel prints compiled early in this century by René van Bastelaer, the Curator of Prints at the Royal Library of Belgium and a scholar whose memory deserves a grateful salute from every lover of the graphic art of Bruegel.
In the two sections entitled “The World of the Seven Deadly Sins or Vices” and “The World of the Gospels” it has seemed best—for what may be called “psychological,” or perhaps simply “logical,” reasons—to depart from the order of Bastelaer’s identifying numbers.
In the comments which precede the reproductions, the Bastelaer numbers are given in an abbreviated form—as B.6, etc.—in order that there may be complete identification at all times, even when titles of individual prints may differ from those which appear elsewhere.
In arrangements as well as in commentary the editor’s effort has been to let the prints speak for themselves, to supply what background information seems likely to increase enjoyment and understanding, and to share his opinions—persistent or tentative—only when they are clearly indicated as opinions. If the written word at any time appears to get in the way of the graphic message, forget the former and cleave only to the latter. That is the editor’s earnest advice and personal plea.
There may seem some inconsistency in the pages that follow. The title and comments refer to Bruegel, yet some references clearly read Brueghel, and many readers probably will recall that sometime, somewhere, they have encountered also Breughel. Actually, all were used. Bruegel himself signed his pictures Brueghel—when he signed them—until about 1559; thereafter, and until his death in 1569, he consistently used Bruegel. And that simpler form, identified with his mature masterpieces, is preferred in this book. However, when quoting from works which used the “earlier” form, that spelling has been respected.
Also, the more familiar Peter is used in this book rather than the correct Dutch Pieter for his first name, just as Jerome, rather than its Latin fancification Hieronymus, has been used as the first name for such eminent incidental persons as Bruegel’s print publisher, Jerome Cock, and Bruegel’s spiritual ancestor, that enigmatic genius, Jerome Bosch.
Concerning the spelling Breughel: When Peter Bruegel died he left a widow and two sons, mere boys. Both of them grew up to become painters of some repute, and both spelled their names with the u and e reversed and the silent h included, as Breughel. Thus, since it should be the right of any individual to be addressed by the name of his own choice, they are correctly called Peter Breughel the Younger and Jan Breughel. Each gained a nickname—“Hell” Breughel and “Velvet” Breughel, respectively, based—be it said—on their styles and subject matter, not on their personalities or characters. . . .
After all, in the sixteenth century, spelling consistency did not matter much, even to quite literate people. Cross the Channel and consider the case of one William Shakespeare (who will be mentioned again in comparison or contrast with Bruegel). Several spellings of his name are found in his own era, and he himself when signing it did not always use the same form. It is perhaps evidence of the cowardice that attends the passion for mere “correctness,” as well as a sort of shabby compromise, that the prevalent standard has become the most cumbersome form of all—the 11-letter S-h-a-k-e-s-p-e-a-r-e. It might better have been Shakspere, as he seems usually to have written; or Shakspeare, as he signed that strange will of his; or even Shaxpere, as with others in the Stratford region.
It would be too bad if this book did not lead readers to talk about the artist it seeks to honor. It would be worse if they remained silent because of uncertainty how to pronounce his name. Practice here varies even more widely than with regard to spelling.
Perhaps the most frequently encountered is the pronunciation with a diphthong: Broy-gell. Then again one will hear Bree-gell and sometimes also Broo-gell. A subsidiary school or persuasion makes the first vowel into the German Umlaut u like the vowel in über or üppig, which is sounded approximately by shaping the lips as if to utter a nice round o as in rose, but instead vocalizing a long e, as in free.
Correctness, like consistency, is sometimes a virtue of small minds, but if one wants to follow the lead of the lexicographers, whose profession it is to know such things, then the pronunciation should be that of the German Umlaut o, as in schön or möchte, or the French eu as in jeu, seul, feu, etc. To achieve this, round the lips again, as for the o of rose, but seek to utter the sound of long a, as in fate or plate or—O vagaries of impossible English spelling!— weight!! What comes out should be closer to the ā than the ō sound.
Neither the German ö nor the French eu is native to our vocal organs. It may help those to whom German is somewhat familiar to visualize the artist’s name as if it were spelled Brögel, and those to whom French comes handier, to think of it as if it were Breuguel. This is all, however, merely incidental. After all, what really matters here is not how you pronounce his name, but how you enjoy his engravings.
A complete Bruegel bibliography today would be enormous, unwieldy, and possibly even ridiculous. The following brief list is limited to works most likely to be found useful or readily accessible or—whenever possible—both. For convenience, the references are grouped according to the language in which they are written, and in the case of English, according to whether they appear in book form, or in periodicals and journals. Order is reverse chronological, the latest being first.
Those interested in more detailed bibliography are referred to pages 648–49 of the Grossmann article in the Encyclopedia of World Art, Vol. II, the third item in the list below.
In English. Books and Catalogs
MÜNZ, LUDWIG. Bruegel, the Drawings (Complete Edition). Greenwich, Conn., 1961. 247 pp., including 163 pp. of plates, reproducing 157 drawings accepted as genuine and 53 listed as apocryphal.
FEINBLATT, EBRIA (ed.). Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Exhibition of Prints & Drawings. Los Angeles County Museum, 1961. 68 pp. The readable, handsome, and amply illustrated catalog of a great exhibition held during the spring of 1961.
GROSSMANN, FRITZ. “Pieter Bruegel the Elder,” Encyclopedia of World Art, pp. 631–51. Vol. II, 1960.
GROSSMANN, FRITZ. Bruegel, the Paintings (Complete Edition). London, 1955. 206 pp., including 38 pp. preliminary text and 155 plates.
TOLNAY, C. DE. The Drawings of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. New York, 1952. 95 pp. text and notes; 96 pp. of plates, reproducing 123 drawings accepted as genuine and 40 listed as apocryphal.
GLÜCK, GUSTAV. The Large Bruegel Book (with notes by Fritz Grossmann). Vienna, 1952.
COX, TRENCHARD. Pieter Bruegel. London, 1951. 24 pp., 10 color plates.
BARNOUW, ADRIAAN J. The Fantasy of Pieter Brueghel. New York, 1947. Unfortunately out of print. 106 pp. with some 30 reproductions of authentic Bruegel engravings, plus 12 from engravings not now regarded as based on Bruegel originals.
BENESCH, OTTO. The Art of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. Cambridge, Mass., 1945. Pages 90 ff. for discussion of Bruegel’s place in history of ideas.
VIDEPOCHE, JEAN. The Elder Peter Bruegel. New York, 1938. With a 14-page essay by Aldous Huxley; the 31-page “Note” by Videpoche, however, contains more of interest to students of Bruegel and his time. 55 pp., 30 reproductions, 6 color plates.
In English. Periodicals, Publications, and Journals
CALMANN, G. “The Picture of Nobody,” Journal of the Warburg Institute, Jan.-June, 1960, 60–104.
GROSSMANN, FRITZ. “New Light on Bruegel . . .,” The Burlington Magazine, 1959, 341–46.
STRIDBECK, C. G. “Combat between Carnival and Lent,” Journal of the Warburg Institute, 1956, 96–109.
BERGSTROM, I. “The Iconological Origins of ‘Spes’ by P. Bruegel the Elder,” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboeck 1956, 53–63.
GROSSMAN, FRITZ. “The Drawings of P. Bruegel the Elder in the Museum Boymans and Some Problems of Attribution,” Bulletin Museum Boymans, Rotterdam, 1955, 41–63.
Bruegel’s Seven Deadly Sins, a 20-minute soundfilm, completed 1962, by H. Arthur Klein (editor-author of present book) and Thomas T. Taylor, III. Commentary spoken by eminent actor Dan O’Herlihy. Musical background.
Information regarding sale or rental in United States and Canada from TOP Films, Post Office Box 3, Malibu, California 90265; and for United Kingdom, Europe, etc., by Contemporary Films, Ltd., 14 Soho Square, London, W.I, England. Available in 16mm and 35 mm prints.
Photographed entirely from Bruegel prints in the Sins series, all of which are reproduced and discussed in this book. Camera motion “animates” these engravings. Enlargements permit entire screen to be filled by details which occupy only an inch or two in width on the original engravings.
Shown at Edinburgh Film Festival of 1962. Also shown to invited audiences at Stedelijk (Municipal) Museum of Amsterdam and the Bibliothèque Royale (Royal Library) of Brussels, Belgium, in 1962.
Sequence of episodes in film: Introduction, with Bruegel portrait; The Sins: Avarice, Pride, Envy, Anger, Gluttony, Lust, and Sloth; Conclusion.
In French and German
STRIDBECK, C. G. Bruegelstudien (Stockholm Studies in History of Art), Stockholm, 1956. 380 pp. and 109 plates. Subtitled in part Untersuchungen zu den ikonologischen Problemen bei Pieter Bruegel d. A., this solid and almost overwhelming work comprises a series of essays. It deserves to be translated into English, soon.
JEDLICKA, GOTTHARD. Pieter Bruegel, der Maler in seiner Zeit. Erlenbach-Zurich, 1947.
FRIEDLÄNDER, M. J. Study of Bruegel in Vol. XIV of his series Die Altniederländische Malerei. Leyden, Holland, 1937.
FRIEDLÄNDER, M. J. Pieter Bruegel. Leyden, Holland, 1937.
TOLNAY, C. DE. Pierre Bruegel L’Ancien. Brussels, 1935.
MICHEL, EDOUARD. Bruegel. Paris, 1931.
GLÜCK, GUSTAV. Die Kunst der Renaissance in Deutschland, den Niederlanden, Frankreich. . . . Berlin, 1928.
BASTELAER, RENÉ VAN, and G. HULIN DE LOO. Peter Bruegel l’Ancien, son oeuvre et son temps. Brussels, 1907.
BASTELAER, RENÉ VAN. Les Estampes de Peter Bruegel l’Ancien. Brussels, 1907. The monumental catalog of the prints, with reproductions in line and invaluable information regarding plate states and all relevant formal details.
Individual prints are identified by their “Bastelaer numbers”—as mentioned above. This refers to the number given the corresponding print in the volume which appears as the last entry in the preceding list of references, namely, the 1907 Les Estampes de Peter Bruegel l’Ancien. These numbers are given simply preceded by a capital B.; i.e., B.7, etc.
Original drawings, as contrasted with the engravings based upon them, we identify by means of the catalog numbers assigned by Ludwig Münz in Bruegel, the Drawings, which appears as a 1961 item in the English part of the preceding list of references. Here, the identifying number is merely preceded by a capital M.; i.e., M.52. For many an engraving no original drawing has survived; however, where such a drawing is known, readers may wish to consult it either by looking up the reproduction among the plates in the Münz volume or—if they have the good fortune—by visiting the museum or collection where it is on display.
Finally, in the immediately following “Chronology of the Creative Life of Peter Bruegel the Elder,” a number of references are made to paintings by Bruegel, including three in monochrome (grisaille) which served as originals for engravings reproduced in this volume. In order positively to identify the paintings mentioned and to assist readers in finding reproductions, we make use of the numbers of the corresponding plates in the work by Fritz Grossmann, Bruegel, the Paintings, which appears as the fourth item in the English part of the preceding list of references. A single painting may be illustrated by more than one plate, and in such case will be indicated by a range of numbers. The abbreviation is simply the identifying number or numbers following the capital letter G.; i.e., G.4 or G.122–24.
Certain other abbreviations are used to save space in the “Chronology” which follows immediately. These are c. (circa, approximately); PB (Peter Bruegel the Elder); vdH (Pieter van der Heyden, who made so many engravings from PB’s originals); and finally,? (to indicate doubtful or uncertain dates, etc.).
The following year-by-year summary of highlights deliberately omits mention of surviving PB drawings for which no corresponding engravings are known. To include such a listing of the individual drawings—however worthwhile for an understanding of the artist’s over-all creative development—would go beyond the scope of this book, which is necessarily restricted to prints from engravings based on Bruegel originals. However, it has seemed best to include mention of major authentic paintings to permit comparison with drawings of the same or near date which were engraved and printed.