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
Om dat de vverelt is soe ongetru
Daer on gha ic in den ru.
The translation is: Since the world is so untrustworthy, I go in
mourning.
_The Proverb of the Bird-Nester_: The proverb is
Dije den nest vveet dije vveeten:
Dije rooft, dije heeten.
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.
[Illustration: THE FALL OF ICARUS (DETAIL)]
[Illustration: MASTER AND PUPIL (DRAWING). ABOUT 1560–61. VIENNA,
ALBERTINA]