NOTES
The illustrations of Bruegel’s paintings accompanying this article are confined to those accepted as authentic by M. Hulin in his catalogue (see Bibliography, first item), with certain additional ones discovered since its publication. Seventeen of the paintings are positively dated; the rest must be distributed through the eleven years of painting on other evidence. Wherever a date appears under an illustration, it is the one assigned by the authority just mentioned, with the exceptions noted. The only alteration in the chronological order, so far as that may be determined, has been the grouping of the Months at the end, to correspond with the text, in which they are treated as the summing-up of Bruegel’s work as a painter. All the drawings reproduced are dated on the authority of Herr Tolnai (see Bibliography, fourteenth item). The following paragraphs give certain supplementary facts:
Village Marriage: Two copies by Pieter II are known. 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 “for reasons of decency”!
Dancing Peasant: This is doubtful. Herr Friedländer considers it a copy; M. Hulin leaves the matter undetermined, but reproduces it.
Descent of Christ into Limbo (drawing): Herr Tolnai says that the date and signature are apocryphal, but assigns it to no other year.
Flemish Proverbs: Not known to M. Hulin; date given on the authority of Herr Friedländer.
Battle Between the Israelites and the Philistines: also called The Death of Saul at the Battle of Gilboa. The uncertainty of this date turns upon whether an extra figure can or can not be discerned at the end of the Roman numerals.
Dulle Griet: The literal subject is the quarrelsome woman, Terrible Margaret, she who frightens the devil himself.
The Carrying of the Cross: Also called The Road to Calvary.
The Misanthrope: Also called The Perfidy of the World. The proverb lettered at the bottom is
The translation is: Since the world is so untrustworthy, I go in mourning.
The Proverb of the Bird-Nester: The proverb is
It may be translated: Who knows where the nest is has his knowledge; who rifles it has possession.
The Numbering at Bethlehem: Also called The Payment of Tithes.
The Fall of Icarus: Not catalogued by M. Hulin. Here put next to the Paul in order to follow the text, in which these two are joined with the Months as representing the height of Bruegel’s achievement.
The Wine of Saint Martin: Admitted by M. Hulin, but with strong doubts; regarded as the fragment of a larger work; done originally in tempera and repainted in oil, perhaps in the seventeenth century.
The Magpie on the Gallows: This picture was bequeathed by Bruegel to his wife.
Marine: Not dated by M. Hulin. Placed here because it appears to be unfinished, and so possibly very late.
The Months: The months suggested in the titles given under the illustrations follow M. Hulin’s catalogue. Herr Friedländer assigns that given as January to March, the February to December, the August (New York) to July, leaving the other two as given.
M. Hulin dates the whole set about 1567. The only trace among them of a date is on the picture in the Metropolitan Museum; on the strength of this Herr Friedländer assigns it positively to 1565, but Mr. Burroughs is inclined to agree with M. Hulin. 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 art.
2.
No paintings in Bruegel’s manner are reproduced which are definitely or even probably by the sons. They are a multitude in themselves, and are mostly attributed to the father. They are to be met with everywhere, from London to Palermo, from Madrid to Petrograd. Herr Friedländer authenticates (without reproducing) one in Budapest and another in Csàkány. 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 children, and a companion piece of coarser workmanship giving an entirely different picture of a massacre. In Vienna there are a dozen or more by the sons which throw much light on the entire question of Bruegel’s own pictures; the most interesting of these is in the Lichtenstein Collection and is in the manner of the Fleeing Shepherd in Philadelphia. The problems raised by all these pictures are many and complex, but the scope and intention of this essay did not permit of its touching upon such matters. However, there are all sorts of ways to spend life, and not the least interesting way would be to go a-Bruegeling through Europe.
Erratum: On page 33 the date of the Massacre of the Innocents should read 1566(?) instead of 1556(?).
The Land of Cockaigne, reproduced on page 39, is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
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