Jane Godsmith. Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the Matter of Italy

7/28/2019 Jane Godsmith. Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the Matter of Italy

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the Matter of ItalyAuthor(s): Jane ten Brink GoldsmithSource: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 1992), pp. 205-234Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal

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SixteenthCenturyournalXXIII, No. 2 (1992)

Pieter Bruegel the Elderand the Matter of ItalyJanetenBrinkGoldsmith*CenterorAdvancedtudyn the VisualArtsNationalGallery fArt

Pieter ruegelheElder'sandscape aintingsrediscussednrelationshipto late ixteenth-centuryrt heory. mongtalian umanistsuringheRenaissance,andscape aintingtood s a paradigmorNetherlandishart,xemplifyingoth ts trengthsndweaknesses.iscussionf andscapepaintinglso enteredntotheParagonen Italian rttheory, here tstood s a paradigmor ainting,ndas such, nexample f thewaysnwhichpaintingurpassedculpture.ruegel's elationshipo Italian rtandhis andscape aintingseed o beunderstoodnrelationshipo oneanother. pholdinghe tatus fpaintings"craft,"ruegel'sandscapes,with heirnsurpassedruthonaturend ncorporationf talian rinciplesofpainting,re a celebrationfhis nativeNetherlandishradition. isactivitys a landscapeainter as nthis espectrucialnusheringn aperiod fculturalelf-definitionn theNetherlandsuringhe ixteenthcentury.

IN 1555, PIETERBRUEGELTHE ELDERreturned o Antwerpfrom an extendedstay n Italyand began an associationwiththeprintmakernd publisherHieronymus ock.1Bythis imethe artist eems ohavealready stablishedhimselfsa landscape ainter,dheringnthis o a nativepictorial radition.This tradition,which had originsin earlyNetherlandish alendarart,played an important art in the religiousart of Jan van Eyck and hisfollowers nd emergedduring he 1520s as a separate ategory fpainting

*I thankProfessorWalterGibsonforhaving kindlymade themanuscriptf his bookon the worldlandscape vailableprior opublication.MyinterpretationfBruegel's andscapesowes much toGibson'sthoughtfulnterpretationf theworkofBruegeland hispredecessors.'The standardatalogues fBruegel'swork are:FritzGrossmann,ieter ruegel: ompleteEditionofthePaintings, d rev. ed. (London/New York: Phaidon, 1973); Ludwig Munz,Bruegel TheDrawings:Completedition London: Phaidon Press,1961); and Louis Lebeer,Catalogue aisonneesestampese PierreBruegel'AncienBrussels: ibliothequeoyaleAlbertr,1969). For n accountfBruegel'sife,ee speciallyrossmann,bid., -20.On Bruegel'sssociationwithHieronymusock,see Timothy iggs,Hieronymusock,Printmakernd PublisherNewYork/London:Garland,1977); idem,"Bruegeland his Publisher,"Pieter ruegel ndSeineWeltBerlin:Mann, 1979); WalterGibson,"Some FlemishPopularPrints romHieronymusCock and his Contemporaries," rtBulletin 0 (December 1978): 673-81.

205


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206 TheSixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)in the work ofJoachimPatinir.2 otably,Bruegel'sassociationwithCockbeganwith whatmaybe understood s a revivalofNetherlandish rtoftheearly ixteenthentury. his revival ookthe form fdesigns orprintsimitatinghe manner fHieronymus osch anddesignsfor set of twelvelargeprintswhich renew the worldlandscape s exemplifiedn the artofPatinir.3It is well established hatBruegel's associationwith Cock markedturning oint in Cock's printing ctivities.4 ock had also spenttime inItalyandfoundedhisprintingstablishmentn Italianmodels.Duringthefirst alf f the1550s,hisprintingctivity ad a decidedlytalian rientationin itsconcentrationn Italian Renaissancepainting,n theproduction fdesignsby contemporarylemish Romanist rtists,nd in theproductionof setsof Romanruins.Bruegel'sassociationwithCock usheredna changefrom his talianorientation o a focus on nativeart.It would be an incorrect ssessment fBruegel's art to thinkthat hesimply eftthe matter f Italyaside.Justifiably,ttention as been givento his relationship o Italian art.5Not only are quotationsof classical artto be found n Bruegel'swork,butit is also generally cknowledged hathis monumental ortrayal f thepeasant n his late paintings, s well asthemoresweepingsenseof space and composition hat nforms othhislatepeasantpaintingsndhis atelandscapes,reinspired y talianpictorialtradition.While the assumptionhas been thatthroughthe adoptionofItalianprinciples f painting he artistmparted feelingof grandeur oboth peasant and landscape,little considerationhas been given to hisrelationshipo Italianart withrespect o broader ultural ssues.

20n thehistory f Netherlandishlandscapepaintingprior o Bruegel,see LudwigvonBaldass, "Die NiederlandischeLandschaftsmalereion Patinir bis Bruegel."Jahrbuch erKunsthistorischenammlungenesAllerhichstenaiserhauses4 (1918): 111ff.See also H. G.Franz,NiederlindischeandschaftsmalereimZeitalteresManierismusGraz:Akademische ruck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 969). The most recentstudyon Flemish landscape painting s WalterGibson,"Mirrorfthe arth":TheFlemishWorld andscape f he ixteenthenturyPrinceton:princetonUniversity ress,1989).3Whileconsiderable ttention asbeengiven nthe modern iteratureoBruegel'sprints,his setofLarge andscapesasnotreceived he kindof attentiontdeserves. he most xtensiveand most recentdiscussion f thesedesigns s in Gibson,"MirrorftheEarth," hap. 5. Seealso Lebeer,Catalogue aisonne,9-48. TheLarge andscapes erepublished yCock sometimein the late 1550s. The firstprint n the series,ViewofTivoli, s relatedto an earlierprintpublishedby Cock. Most of the landscapes n this series return o the world landscape;however, everal fthedesigns uch as thePagusNemerosus,ntroduce newtypeofforestedlandscape,which has been said to evokeBruegel'snativeterrain.4Riggs,Hieronymusock,49ff.50n Bruegeland Italianart, ee FritsLugt,"PieterBruegelund Italien,"FestschriftirMaxJ. FriedldnderLeipzig: Seemanm,1927), 11ff; GustavGliuck,PeterBrueghel heElderandClassicalAntiquity," rtQuarterly (Summer1943): 167ff.; ritzGrossmann,Bruegel'sWoman Taken in Adultery nd otherGrisailles,"Burlington agazine94 (August1952):218ff;FritzGrossmann, Bruegel's Verhaltnis u Raffaelund zur RaffaelNachfolge," nFestschriftfirrurtBadt Berlin:DeGruyter, 961), 135ff;Carl Stridbeck,Bruegelund derNiederlandischeRomanismus," ruegel tudienSoest,Holland: Davaco, 1977),266 ff.

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Pieter ruegel Italy 207It is my ntention ere to considerBruegel'srelationshipo Italywithregard o a newly emerging ense of a Netherlandish chool of paintingthatoccurred uring he second halfof the sixteenth enturynboth talyand theNetherlands. he emergencentheNetherlands tself f a nationalself-consciousnessis-a-vis aintingmay nfact eunderstoodnrelationshipto Italy,wherethe deaof a national chool ofpaintingwas closelyweddedto thenotionof a nationalcultural rebirth.'Vasari'sLives,which was firstpublished n 1550, conceivesof the history fart'as thehistoryfItalianpainting.6 otably,however, he second editionof Vasari'sLives, ublishedduring hepeakofBruegel'scareer,n 1568, included section n Nether-landishpainters.7Justouryears ater, nd followingBruegel'sdeath,the

widow of the ateHieronymus ock published Netherlandishounterpartto Vasari, in the form of a volume of portraits f Dutch and Flemishpainters accompanied by Latin verses composed by the Netherlandishhumanist omenicusLampsonius.8he question wish to address s: Howdo we understand ruegel's careeras a landscape painter, s well as hisrelationshipo Italianart, s a partof this broader ulturaldevelopment?When Bruegelembarked pona career s a landscapepainter, e was,to be sure,takingup a typeof paintingwhich for ItaliansepitomizedNetherlandish rt- both its strengthsnd its shortcomings.9n the onehand,Netherlandishandscapeswere admiredfor the vast distances heyportrayednd for he infinite ariety fdetailthey ncluded;on the otherhand,theywere slightedfor ackingthe elevated concerns f Italian art.This Italian, and, it mightbe added, humanist, ense of Netherlandishpainting s in factexpressedn some comments hatLampsoniusmade inthe verses he wrote aboutthe Dutch painterJanvan Aemstel,where he

6Le ViteDe Pii Eccelenti rchitetti,ittori,t Scultoritaliani,Da Cimabue nsinoA'TempiNostri: escritten linguaToscana, a GiorgioVasariPittore retino. on unasuautile& necessariaintroduzzionele arti oro, sted.(Florence:LorenzoTorrentino, 550).7Le ViteDe'Pii Eccelentiittori,cultori,t Architettori,critte di nuovoAmpliate a M.GiorgioVasariPit. Et Archit. retino,d ed. (Florence:Apresso Giunti,1568).8Pictorumliquot elebriumermanicaenferiorisffigiesAntwerp, 572).9Fordiscussion f the talianreception f Netherlandishandscapepainting, eeGibson,"Mirrorofthe arth," hap. 1. Vasall, in a letter o BenedettoVarchi of 1547,praisesFlemishlandscapepaintings or heir ffects fspace,addingthat here is no cobbler'shouse withoutits andscape, ecauseone becomes ttractedytheir leasant iew and theworking fdepth."Francesco anciolotti, ratto i PitturaRome,1509),writes hat a certain alent nd discretionis neededfor rendering] ear and distant andscape,which the Flemish seem to have ratherthan the Italian." The negativeview of Flemishlandscape s exemplifiedn the commentallegedlymade by Michelangelo (accordingto Francescoda Holanda, De PinturaAntigua[1548]): "Butmost of the timetheypaintwhat are called landscapeswithplenty ffigures.Though the eye is agreeably mpressed hesepictureshave neither rt nor reason;neithersymmetry or proportion;neither hoice of values nor grandeur. n short,this is an artwithoutpower and withoutdistinction;t aims at renderingminutelymany things t thesametime, f which a singleone would havesufficed o call forth whole man'sapplication"(quotedfrom ohannHuizinga,TheWaning f heMiddleAges New York:DoubledayAnchorBooks, 1954], 265).



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208 The Sixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)notedthat, ... theNetherlanderswin praisefor theirlandscapes,whilethe talians xcel in therepresentationfmen andgods."Lampsonius henremarked hat this was only natural, ...because the Italianshave theirbrainsn theirheads,while thegenius f Netherlanderss in theirhands."10And so, a distinction rose between Italian paintingas "learning"andFlemishartas "craft."11In recentyears,Van Mander'simage of "peasant"Bruegelhas givenway to one ofBruegelas a moresophisticatedrtist, ow known to haveassociatedwith humanistsndprinces.Bruegel'sconnectionnRomewiththe Croatianminiaturist iulio Clovio demonstrateshat his associationwiththeworldof Renaissance umanismegan earlynhiscareer. videncestrongly uggests hat he two artistsollaborated,nd we cansafely ssumethat this collaboration ook the form fBruegelproviding andscapesforClovio'sfigurecenes.12 ore mportantere,however,s Vasari's escriptionofClovio as "un piccolo e nuovoMichelangelo," nd the fact hatCloviowas well known nhis ownlifetime orhis nterestn art heory.13ruegel'sself-consciousnessis-a-vistalian rt radition ecomes pparentn consid-eringa work such as his TowerofBabel (fig. 1; Gen. 11:1-9; Josephus,Jewish ntiquities,:42), executed n 1563.14More specifically, owever,thepainting s a response o thepreoccupationn his own Netherlandish

l?This is quoted in fullbyE. H. Gombrich, The RenaissanceTheoryofArtand theRise of Landscape,"in Norm and Form London/New York: Phaidon Press, 1966), 115."PropriaBelgarum aus est benepingererura/Ausoniorum,ominespingere, ivedeos/Necmirum,ncapitesAusonius,edBelga cerebrum/Nonemerengnava ertur aberemanu/Maluitergo manusJani bene pingererura/Quamcaput, aut homines aut male scire deos ..."However, as Gibson "MirrorftheEarth,"chap. 1, pointsout, already n 1549, AntonioFrancescoDoni, a Florentineiving nVenice,had asserted hattheFlemishpaintvelvet ndsilk better han otherpaintersbecause theyare better n affairs ot requiringdrawing, rdisegno,ence theproverb,theyhave theirbrains n their ingers"gl'hanno l cervellonellemani)."See SvetlanaAlpers,The Art fDescribing:utchArt n the eventeenthenturyChicago:UniversityfChicago Press,1983), esp. chap.3, for discussion f"craft" n Netherlandishpainting.12OnBruegel'sassociationwithClovio, see Grossmann, ieter ruegel: ompleteditionofthePaintings,d ed., 16. The last will and inventoryfClovio were bothpublished nA.Bertolotti,GiulioClovio, rincipeeiminiatoriModena: Vincenzi e Nipoti, 1882), 11.

13For iscussion f Giulio Clovio withinthe context fhis artisticmilieu, eeJohnW.Bradley,Giorgio iulioClovio,Miniaturist,498-1578:HisLife ndWorksAmsterdam: essink,1971).14For discussion f thevarious nterpretationsfBruegel'streatmentf theTowerofBabel, eeGibson, Mirrorof he arth,",hap.5. Seealso,Johann-Christianlamt, Anmerkungenzu PieterBruegel'sBabel-Darstellungen,"n Pieter ruegelnd eineWelt,d. Otto vonSimsonundMatthiasWinner Berlin:Mann, 1979); StevenA. Mansbach, PieterBruegel'sTower fBabel,"Zeitschriiftfirrunstgeschichte5 (1982): 43-56; HelmutMinkowsky,Aus demNebelderVergangenheitteighterTurm u Babel. Bilder us 1000JahrenBerlin:Rembrandt-Verlag,1960), 48-77; Christian umpel,"Die RezeptionderJudischen ltumer es FlaviusJosephusin derHollandischenHistoriendarstellungenes 16. und 17.Jahrhunderts,"n Wort ndBild



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Pieter ruegel Italy 209culturewith Italian models.While the illustration f this biblicalsubjectwas notnew at the time, t was stillconsiderably are.Bruegel maywellhave beenfamiliarwith llustrationsf the theme n the Farnese ours ndin the GrimaniBreviary.1 e would have had access to both illustratedvolumes n Italy, hroughClovio. One would like to think hatthis werethecase, since one of the mostpeculiar spectsof thispainting s thewaythatBruegeldeviatesfrompictorial radition.More specifically,he artisthas modernizedthe illustration f the text in a highly meaningful ndoriginalway.16

. ...

... fA-- :,e.

v'L- ;-y ^ts

Fig.1. Pieter ruegel heElder, heTowerfBabel. igned nddated 563.Oilonpanel, 4-1/2x 61 in. 114 x 155cm).Kunsthistorischesuseum, ienna.Reprintedypermissionin Niederandischenunstund Literatures 16. und17.Jahrhunderts,d. HermannVekemanundJustusMiller Hofstede Erftstadt ukassen, 984), 177-81; R. Fritz, Die Darstellungendes Turmbauszu Babel in derBildendenKunst,"MitteilungenerDeutschen rientgesellschaft71 (1932): 15 ifl5It has been suggested hatBruegelcollaboratedwith Clovio on the FarnseHours, eeCharles de Tolnay, "FurtherMiniaturesby PieterBruegel the Elder,"Burlington agazine122 (1980): 616-23; Gibson,Bruege New York: OxfordUniversity ress,1977), 28, statesthatBruegelcannothavepainted hesepages sincethe Farese Hourswas completed n 1546,someyearsbeforeBruegel'sassociationwith Clovio in Rome.

16Bruegel appears o have already reated his theme n Italy.A painting yBruegelonivorydepictingThe TowerofBabel s listed n theinventoryfClovio.



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210 TheSixteenthenturyJournalXIII/2 (1992)The mostoriginal spectofBruegel'streatmentftheTower fBabelis thathe modeledtheedificeon the Roman Colosseum. While thismay

be related o his own travels o Italy, t is morecloselyconnected o setsofRomanruins hatCock hadpublishednthe arly 550s.17 he Colosseumentered ntoCock's ruinproductionn a quite significant ay.The way nwhichCock's interestnRomanruins nformedhementalityof Netherlandishpaintersat mid-centurys evident in Maerten vanHeemskerck's elfPortrait ith ViewoftheColosseum,ompleted n 1552(fig.2). We needonlycompare hispainting yVan Heemskerckwith his1532 paintingof SaintLukePainting heVirginfig. 3) to appreciate henewlyemerging ense that Netherlandish aintershad of themselves ythe mid-1550s.18n the earlierpaintingvan Heemskerck howsthe artistin the traditionalNetherlandish uiseof Saint Luke painting heVirgin,thusasserting he earliercommitment f Netherlandish rt to religiouspurposes.n the aterpainting, owever,we see a self-portraitftheartist,who assumes strikinglyelf-consciousose as he gazesout at theviewerand asserts is commitmento classical ulture.19anHeemskerck'saintingsetsout, n fact, o contradicthe status f Netherlandish ainting s craft.The relationship f Bruegel's paintingto Van Heemskerck'sworkreceives ullclarificationnly n the ightof talianRenaissance rt heory.In his De re aedificatoria1453-70), Leon BattistaAlbertimade a firmdistinction etween the architect s craftsman nd as genius:"To runupanything hat s immediately ecessary oranyparticular urpose .. isnot so muchthe businessof the architect s of a commonworkman;butto raisean edificewhich is to be complete n everypart, nd to considerand providebeforehandverything ecessary or such a work,this s thebusiness f thatcomprehensive enius."20

17SeeRiggs,Hieronymusock,155ff., at. nos. 1-25,256-66 and nos. 98-130, 291-306.They include nineviewsofthe Colosseum.'8It is notclear whether he artistportrayeds a self-portraitf Van Heemskerck. hethemewas previously epictedbyotherprominentNetherlandish rtistsuch as RogiervanderWeyden andJanGossaert, hough again it is not absolutely ertain hat these ncludeself-portraitsf thepainters.19The irst etherlandishainter otravel oRome and become nterestedntheremainsofclassical ntiquitywasJanGossaert,who was in Rome from1508 to 1511. It appears hatself-consciousness n the partof Netherlandish rtistswas closelyconnectedto a directencounterwith Italy.20QuotedfromJoanGadol, Leon Battista lberti:Universal an oftheEarlyRenaissance(Chicago: The UniversityfChicago Press,1969), 134. "Ma, primadi procedere ltre, redoutile chiarire he cose, secondome, si debbaintendereperarchitetto. iacchenonprender6certo n considerazione n carpentiere,erparagonarlo i pii qualificati sponenti elle altrediscipline:l lavorodel carpentierenfatti one chestrumentaleispetto quellodell'architetto.Architettohiamer6 olui che con me todo sicuro perfetto appia progettareazionalmentee realizzarepraticamente,ttraverso o spostamento ei pesi e mediante a riunione e lacongiunzionedei corpi, opere che nel modo migliore i adattino i piu importanti isognidell'uomo."



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Pieter ruegl& Italy 211

9if'

Behind. ignedand dated 1555. Oil on panel, 16- 1/2 x 21- 1/4 in. (42.2 x 54cm). Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Reprinted by permission

Fig.3. MaertenanHeemskerck,aint uke aintingheVirginrom he SaintLukeAltarpiece.il onpanel, 6 x 92-1/2 n. 168x 235 cm).FransHalsMuseum, arlem,.Reprintedy permission

z! FRy'....'i,~ :,:~.~,~!' ...-"* ' : 'LIrirrdigmdarpiecc.::.'. Oil on panel, . -1/ . ?16 . 235 .m). ? :..

Fig. ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~E.Merc a cmkrk gitL e ;~/,T~ io hanLukeAl~~~~~~~~~~~taie.Oionpel66x9-2i.(18x25c. FramHMuseum,Haarlem.eprintedy permission~~~~~~~~~



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212 TheSixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)It isinthis ontext f somesignificancehat ehindhisownself-portraitvan Heemskerck ortraysn artisteatedbefore heColosseumanddrawing

it. While this s clearlynot a reference o the designing f the structureitself, rawing n Italian arttheory id exemplify isegno, hichis to say,thatpartof artisticctivitywhichwas considered obe learned, ndwhichalso served s a unifying ond amongthe visualarts.21The viewsputforthyAlbertinhisDe re edificatoriaerefundamentallyinspired yVitruvius,nd indeedthedistinction emade between reativeendeavorand manual work goes back to Vitruviushimself.22otably,Vitruvius's e Architectura,s well as some of Serlio'swritings, ad beentranslated nd published n summary ormby Bruegel's alleged teacher,PieterCoecke vanAelst, n 1539 and 1550.23One of the most nnovative spects fBruegel'streatmentf the TowerofBabel s theemphasishe givesto the mechanics f construction.24hiswas a partof thenarrativehat was generally gnoredor downplayedbyotherartists.While Bruegel's concern n the actual construction f thetowercan mostcertainly e explainedbythe narrativetself, he artistmayhave selected the theme partlyforwhat it allowed in portrayingheColosseum,whichduring he Renaissancewas one of themosthallowedexamplesofclassical rchitecturend and an exampleofVitruvian heory.His interestn the building s clearlydemonstratedy the factthat n aslightlyater version fig.4) the artist emovedthe historical ersonagesand let the architecturetself ortrayhe text.

21Cf.n. 10 above. For a discussion f theimportance f theconceptofdisegnon Italianarttheory, ee MauricePoirier, The Role ofDisegno n Mid-Sixteenth enturyFlorence,"in TheAgeofVasari NotreDame, Ind.andBinghamton,N.Y.: University f Notre Dameand University f New York, 1970). See also Gadol, Leon Battista lberti,32 ff.22For discussion fAlberti's elationshipo Vitruvius, ee Gadol,Leon Battista lberti,105 ff.23OnPieterCoecke vanAelst, eeGeorgesMarlier, a Renaissancelamande. ierre oecked'AlostBrussels:Finck,1966).24This spointedoutbyGibson,"Mirrorof he arth,",hap.5. See alsoH. Arthur lein,"Bruegelthe Elder as a Guide to 16th-Century echnology,"Scientificmerican38, no. 3(March, 1978): 134-40.



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Pieter ruegel Italy 213.?

ill -:a-ia-

Fig.4. Pieter ruegel heElder, heTowerfBabel.Datable . 1564. Oil onpanel, 3-1/2x 29-1/4 n. 60 x 74.5 cm).Museum oymans-vaneunigen,Rotterdam.eprintedypermission

Yet itmaybe askedwhatall this concernwith architecture as to dowithpainting?n the Renaissance heredid exist a veryclear connectionbetweenthe two. In the sixteenth entury, aintingn Italycould and didclaima humanist tatus rimarilyyvirtue f tsconnection omathematicsand geometry.25ore fundamentally,owever, t was by way ofpainted5It was primarily y virtueof thebond betweenpainting nd literature hatAlberticlaimed a humanist tatusforpainting. n his treatise n painting,published n 1435-36Alberti dvisedthat, ... each painter houldmake himself amiliarwithpoets,rhetoriciansand others quallywell learned n letters. hey will give new inventions r at least aid inbeautifullyomposingthe istoriahroughwhichthepainterwill surely cquiremuchpraiseandrenown n hispainting. hidias,morefamous hanpainters,onfessedhathe hadlearnedfromHomer,thepoet,how topaintJovewithmuch divinemajesty. hus we who are moreeagerto learn thanto acquirewealthwill learn from urpoetsmore and morethingsusefulto painting";quoted fromJohnR. Spencer,Lan Battista lbertinPaintingrev. ed. (NewHaven/London:Yale University ress,1966), 91. It was onlyin the sixteenth enturyhatthe case forthe humanist tatus fpaintingwas madeby wayofthe mathematical ciences.



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214 TheSixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)architecturehatone-point erspective,s well asproportionateelationships,wererealizedwithinpaintings.26otably, ll three eadingpainters f theHigh Renaissance- Leonardo,Michelangelo,and Raphael - were alsoaccomplished rchitects.While this was not the case with Netherlandishpainters, ne of the mostprominent spectsof Romanistpainting n theNetherlandss the extent o which classicalarchitecture,n botha ruinedand completedstate, ntered nto their art.27n thisway, Netherlandishpainters sed the Italianparadigm farchitectureo makea claim fortheLiberalArts tatus fpainting.The classicalstatementn Italian artabout the relationship etweenpaintingnd architectures made nRaphael'sSchool fAthens. he paintingisat one evel tour-de-forcen terms f rchitecturalperspectiveonstruction,andsurelywas intendeds suchbytheartist.28Raphael'spainted rchitectureputs nto ffect measured enseof visible ealitys stipulatednRenaissancearttheory.Mathematics nd geometryre illustratedn thepersonages fPythagorasn the eft oreground,hodemonstratesissystemfharmonieson a slate,and Euclid on theright,who in the guiseofBramante, rawsa circle on a tablet. These two groupsare given prominenceby theirlocation in the foreground f the painting.Notably,Raphael includeshimself n the fresco,off to the rightbehind the mathematiciansndPtolemy. he coupling f a painterwithPtolemysnotwithout ignificance

26Moreover,rchitecturetselfwas viewedas an imitativert,which rendered aturenher ideal state. See Gadol, Leon BattistaAlberti,8ff.The Italian Renaissanceconcernwithgeometryndmathematicsnrelationshipo architecture as anticipatedntheMiddleAges;see UmbertoEco, "The Aesthetics fProportion,"nArt ndBeautyn theMiddleAges NewHaven: Yale University ress,1986), 28ff, nd Otto von Simpson, Measure and Light," nTheGothicCathedralNew York: Harper& Row, 1962), 21ff.27See,for nstance, anGossaert'sNeptunendAmphritite1516; StaatlicheMuseen zuBerlin),Bernard anOrley'sAltarpiecef heOrdealsfJob1521;MuseesRoyauxdesBeaux-Arts,Brussels), nd LambertLombard'sSaint Denis and Saint Paul BeforeheAltaroftheUnknownGod c. 1540; Musee de l'ArtWallon, Liege). A curiousfeature fall theseworks s that heartists ffer heir own freely nventedversionsof classicalbuildings.This appearsto becharacteristicf theway in which classical architecturenters ntomostsixteenth-centuryNetherlandishpaintings.MaertenvanHeemskercksunusual n that he classical rchitectureinhispaintingsends ofaithfullyenderspecific ntiquebuildings.Among ll oftheso-calledRomanistpaintersntheNetherlands, anHeemskerck asmost oncernedwith architecture.The majority f his drawings n Rome were done after rchitecturaldifices; ee ChristianHulsen and HermannEgger, eds., Die romischenkizzenbucheron Martenvan Heemskerck(Soest,Holland: Davaco, 1975).28For discussion farchitecturenRaphael'spaintings,ee Gianfrancopagnesi, affaello:L'architetturapicta," er ezionerealitaRome:Multigrafica,984). Spagnesi iscusses ramante'sinfluenceon Raphael and the importance f architecturen Raphael's paintings. ee alsoSimonetteValtieri, La Scuola d'Atene. Bramante uggerisce n nuovo metodopercostruirein prospettiven'architetturarmonica,"MitteilungenesKunsthistorischennstitutesn Florenz16 no. 1 (1972): 63-72; Paolo Morachiello,VitruvioRaffaelo:l "De architectura"i Vitruviotraduzionenedita iFabiaCalvoravennateRome:Officina, 975);WarmanWelliver, SymbolicMeaning in Leonardo's and Raphael'sPaintedArchitecture,"rtQuarterly5 no. 4 (1972):343-74.



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PieterBruegel Italy 215in that he ancientphilosopher ad indicated hat he deaofproportionalityapplied to both geography nd painting:"As in an entirepainting,"hewrote, "we [geographers nd chorographers]must firstput the largerfeatures,nd afterwardhosedetailedfeatures hichportraitsndpicturesmayrequireto give themproportionn relationto one another o thattheir correct measure . . . can be seen by examining them.29The VitruvianunderpinningsfBramante'srchitecturendRaphael'spainted rchitecturearemetaphoricallyonveyed n thesteps hatfigure rominentlynto thepainting's rchitecturaletting. n hiswritings, itruvius tated hatonlythosepersonswere truearchitects who fromboyhoodhave mountedbythestepsofthesevarious tudies nd sciences,have reachedthetempleofarchitecturet thetop."30Not only s a connectionmade betweenart andlearning, ut also architecturetands s a paradigmforall thevisual arts.By themid-1550s,whenBruegelreturnedoAntwerp romtaly, herelationship etweenpainting nd theLiberalArtswas a concern mongartists.31ransFloris,Bruegel'sleadingRomanist ontemporary,esigneda setofpaintingsllustratinghe LiberalArts orNiclaesJonghelinck,oontobecomeBruegel'smaecenas.loris lsoprovided esigns or setofprintsillustratinghe Liberal ArtsforHieronymusCock.32n 1550, the Italianengraver,GiorgioGhisi,did a largeand impressive rint fterRaphael'sSchool fAthensfig.5) forCock.33This printwas dedicated o Perrenot,who was also to becomeone ofBruegel'spatronsn the 1560s.34In his designfora print llustrating emperance fig.6),done in thelate 1550s as partof a setofprintsllustratingheVirtues orHieronymus

29Quoted romGadol,LeonBattista lberti,1,whostates,.. .where tolemy's omparisonbetween a picture nd a mapwas a loose one, Alberti rnsformedhe relation ntoa strict,technical onnection."30QuotedfromGadol,LeonBattista lberti,30.31This n fact s demonstratedn Zirka Zaremba Filipczak,Picturing rt in Antwerp,1550-1700 Princeton: rinceton niversityress, 987). Fora discussionf this nrelationshipto sixteenth-centuryainting n Antwerp, ee 11-57.32SeeGibson, Artists ndRederijkersn theAgeofBruegel,"ArtBulletin 3 (September1981): 434ff.: "The Seven LiberalArts eems to have been an especiallypopulartheme nAntwerp. n addition to the picture ycle that he [Frans Floris]executed forJonghelinck,referredoabove,Florismade a setofdesigns f theSevenLiberalArts,whichCockpublishedas printsn 1551."4Riggs,Hieronymusock,267-69, cat. nos. 26-35.33Thiswas one of five argeengravings hat Ghisi did after talianpaintings orCockin the 1550s. See Riggs,Hieronymusock,47ff.340n Granvelle s a patron fthearts, eeMauricePiquard, Le Cardinalde Granvelle,les artistes t les ecrivains," evueBelge17 (1947-48): 133-47.



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216 TheSixteenthenturyournal XIH/2 (1992)

ME

Fig.5. GiorgioGhisi, fter aphael, heScholofAthens.ngraving,0-1/4x32 in. 51.4x 81.3 cm).Museum fFineArts, oston.Reprintedypermission_,? .?w

. ,

Fig. 6. PhilipGall, after ieterBruegeltheElder,TemperancefromheSevenVirtues.ngraving, -3/4 x 11-1/2 in. (22.2 x 29.2 cm). National GalleryofArt,RosenwaldCollection.Washington,D. C. Reprinted ypermission



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Pieter ruegel Italy 217Cock, Bruegelresponded o thesedevelopmentsn his artisticmilieu.35fthere s anyquestionregardinghematter ftheoretical oncerns nteringintoBruegel'sTower fBabel,his treatment f"Temperance" houldallaysuch doubts. The print s not only based on Raphael's fresco,but alsoaddresses tselfto the meaning of Raphael's painting.36What initiallyobliteratesurrecognitionfRaphaelas theunderlyingource f nspirationforBruegel'sdesignis the artist'shavingturned he frontally rganizedcompositionfRaphael nto nobliqueview.ThisunderminingfRaphael'sclassically onstructedomposition etstheagendafor he rest ftheprint.At issue in Bruegel'sprint, s in Raphael's painting, s the statusofthe visualarts,painting n particular. ruegelhas includedthe visualartswith the LiberalArts,which themselves re a substitute orRaphael's"ancient schools of learning."37 n architect cales a column,a sculptorworkson a figure nd a painter itsat his easel,paletteand mahlstick nhand.The illustration fTemperancewith the LiberalArts s unusual,butmaybe explainedbyBruegel's nterpretationfTemperance s "measure."Measure s nthisprintmanifestn thegroup fmeasuringiguresllustratingGeometry:rchitect,culptor, eographer,stronomer,ndsurveyor.38oreimportant,measure" s intended o be understood n thisprint n termsof Italianarttheory.t is of some significancehatwhile thesculptor ndarchitect re doing what is dictatedby Italian arttheory, he painter sexcludedfrom hebusinessofmeasuring.At the sametime,Bruegelhas,in accordancewith talian arttheory,oined thepainterwithmathematics,but he has thenundermined his earned senseof the artist yportrayingthemathematicianshemselvessmoney-changers.ere, n a very orthright

35SeeJ.G. van Gelder andJanBorms,Bruegel'sZeven Deugden en Zeven Hoofzondon(Amsterdam/Antwerp:e Spieghel, 1939), 35ff.,and Carl Stridbeck, Die Tugenden,"Bruegel tudienStockholm:Almquist& Wiksell, 1956), 162-70.36Grossmannoticed herelationshipetweenBruegel'sdesign ndRaphael,butneglectedto deal with the meaningof the print n relationship o the painting.See Grossmann,"Bruegel'sVerhaltnis u Raffael und zur RaffaelNachfolge," in Festschriftir KurtBadt(Berlin:De Gruyter, 961), 140.37The illustration f Temperancewith the Liberal Arts s entirelynew here. For adiscussion f the llustrationftheLiberalArts ntheMiddleAges,see E. Male, "The Mirrorof Instruction,"n The Gothicmage New York: Harper& Row, 1958); andJamesHall,Dictionary fSubjectsndSymbolsNew York: Harper& Row, 1979), 278 ff.For discussionof the illustration f theVirtues, ee Hall, idem,297 and A. Katzenellenbogen, AllegoriesoftheVirtues ndVices inMedievalArt," tudies f heWarburgnstitute0 (London: 1939).This oining oftheLiberalArts thevisual arts nparticular witha Virtuewas,however,common monghumanistsnRenaissancetaly, nd was morespecifically topicofdiscussionamongthosemaking humanist laimforthevisualarts.For a discussion f"Art as Virtu"inRenaissance taly, ee LeatriceMendelsohn, aragone. enedettoarchi's Due Lezzione" ndCinquecentortTheory,AnnArbor:UMI ResearchPress,1978), 47-52.38DuringheRenaissancen Italy hemethods f thesurveyor ereadoptedbysculptors.See Gadol, LeonBattista lberti,6. There is some significancen Bruegel's having ocatedthesurveyorust behind thesculptor.



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218 The Sixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)way,theartistsassertingictorial ctivityscraft,ndas such, s somethingdirected t financialgain. Such a connection s made again in the 1560sin his drawingof The Artist nd the Connoisseurfig.7),wherewe see apaintert hiseasel, ndstanding ext ohim connoisseur ith prominentlydisplayedmoneypurse.39he image of thepainterput forth y Bruegelspeaksnotonlyto Italianhumanist rt heory utalso to another ignificantaspect fNetherlandishainting.Giventhe notion hatpersistedfFlemishpaintingas an art of landscape, t is worthpointingout thatlandscapeappears hento have been one of the more ucrative ategories fpainting.As a major export tem to Italy, andscapepaintingdid in factcontributesignificantlyo the thriving ommercialeconomyof sixteenth-centuryAntwerp.While Carel van Mander's Het Schilderboekf 1604 anticipatestheflowering f Dutch painting fthe seventeenthentury,t also looksback to Netherlandish radition f the sixteenth entury,when in theopening ines of the lifeofPatinir, he author tates:

The famous nd imposing ityofAntwerp, ropserous ecauseofitscommerce, ttracted he most eminent rtists rommanyparts,and in largenumbers,ince artflourishes here there s wealth.40It is no accidentthat such a statements made about an artistwho firstestablishedandscapeas a category f art,who had a largeworkshop, ndwho withthehelp ofa workshopproduced largequantity f landscapepaintings.41While landscapewas a prevailing oncern n Bruegel's artfrom hestart f his career until his death,he did in factproducehis landscapesaccordingto conditions ntirely ifferent romthose of his two leadingpredecessors atinir nd Henri Met de Bles. Bruegeldid not,as theydid,have a largeworkshop,nordidhe mass-produceandscapepaintings s hisimmediate redecessor,Met de Bles, seemsto have done. Unlike muchoftheproduction fhispredecessors, ruegel's andscapeswere notdone forexportnor for an open market. t is firmly stablished hatBruegel'slandscapeswere executedfor a limited nd exclusiveclienteleofpatrons.The extraordinaryarietyndinventivenessvident nBruegel's andscapepaintings,nticipated ythe set of twelvelandscapes hathe didforCock,is entirely n keeping with the conditionsaccording to which they

39SeeStridbeck'snterestingut notvery convincing nterpretationf thisdrawing spresenting learned mage of the painter n "Der Maler und derKenner,"Bruegel tudien(Stockholm:Almquist& Wiksell, 1956), 15ff.40QuotedfromRobertKoch,Joachim atinir Princeton:PrincetonUniversity ress,1968), 8. Koch's translations baseduponthe first dition fHetSchilderboekHaarlem: 1604),fol. 219r, and upon the modernDutch edition,which follows the secondeditionof 1618,Het Schilder-BoekanCarel vanMander, rdprinting,Amsterdam, 946), 68.41See Gibson,"MirroroftheEarth,", hap. 1.



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Pider Brwl & Italy 219

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220 TheSixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)wereproduced.While theartistutforth lowly mageof theNetherlandishpainternpictures fhim,his career s a landscapepainter rguespreciselyto thecontrary.The Patiniresque andscapewithChristAppearingotheApostlesn theSea ofTiberias o longerappearsto havebeen executedbyBruegel,yet tis clearthatBruegel emergedn Italy t the start f hiscareerwith a strongattachment o the Netherlandishworld landscape, s popularized n thefirst uarterof the sixteenth enturyn the paintingsof Patinir.42heAlpine drawingswhich figured nto Bruegel's reputation s a landscapepainter n such an importantway, and which were done eitheron hisjourneyto (orreturn rom) taly, rein a quitefundamentalense nspiredbynature; t the same timethefantasticockformationso typical ftheworld andscape re certainlyhe sourceofBruegel'sfascinationwith thisparticular ypeof landscape.What Bruegel has done here is simplytosubmitpictorial onvention o theexperience f natureherself. ruegel'scommitment o the world landscape of Patinir s also evidentin twolandscapeprints orwhichhe produceddesignswhile in Italy.43One of Bruegel's earliest extantpaintingsfollowinghis return oAntwerps hisLandscapewith he all of carusfig.8), whichwas repeatedin a second,nearlydentical ersion.44eturningo his ownartisticnventionin his Landscapewith heFall of carusprint,Bruegelsets forthhis artisticagendavis-a-vis oth Italianand Netherlandish ictorial raditions.45heunderlyingonceptionof thepainting s the world landscape,which theartisthas,as itwere,reinvented.A useful omparison anbe madebetweenBruegel'sLandscapewith heFall of carus nd hisLandscapewith heParable fthe owerfig.9), whichis signed nd dated1557. The earlierlandscape ears far loser esemblanceto the world landscape n thebird's-eye erspective,which givesa sense

42Thiswork was previouslyhought o havebeen executedby Bruegel n Italy.Recentlaboratory xaminationof the paintingstrongly uggests,however,that it is not of thesixteenthcentury.On Patinir and the world landscape, see Detlef Zinke, Patinir's"Weltlandschaft": tudien ndMaterialenurLandschaftsmalereim16.JahrhundertFrankfurta.M./Bern/LasVegas: PeterLang, 1977).43Lebeer, atalogue aisonne, 77ff.These prints re signedand dated:PetrusBreugelRomae 1554/Excused:Houf: cumpraeCaes. Theywereengraved yJorisHoefnaegel,whoit appearsalso added the classicalsubjectmatter.One printdepicts RiverLandscapewiththe Fall of Icarus;theotherdepicts RiverLandscapewithMercuryAbducting syche.44The ttributionfthispainting oBruegelhasoccasionally eendoubted,mostrecentlybyJohnE. T. C. White,"PieterBruegeland the Fall oftheArtHistorian," harleton ectureon Art Delivered in the University f Newcastle on Tyne, 1980. For discussionof thepainting,eePhilippeRoberts-Jones,ruegel.a Chutd'IcareFribourg:Officedu livre, 974).45The Icarus themeappearsto have had a particular ppeal forBruegel.Bruegel alsoincludedthis episode in one of his printsof a ship that formedpartof a seriesof printsillustrating ifferentypesofships.See Lebeer,Catalogue aisonne, at. no. 44.



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Pieter ruegel Italy 221

Fig. 8. PieterBruegeltheElder,Landscapewith heFall f IcarusDatable c.1558. Oil on canvas,29 x 44-1/8 in. (73.7 x 112.3 cm). Muses RoyauxdesBeaux-Arts e Belgique,Brussels.Reprinted ypermission_~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~-r,"',l

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Fig. 9. PieterBruegeltheElder,Landsapewit theParable fthe ower. ignedand dated 1557. Oil on canvas,29 x 40 in. (74 x 102 cm). Timken ArtGallerySan Diego. Reprinted ypermission

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222 TheSixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)of distance to foreground s well as background. n the Fall of carus,Bruegelhas done no less thanintroduce n Italian sense of space.46 tillretaining he sense of vastdistance, haracteristicf theworldlandscape,and so admired ythe talians,Bruegelnow attemptedophysicallyocatetheviewerwithinthe work of art.He did thisbyproviding foregroundwhichcorrespondsn scale to thevieweroutsidethepainting, nd whichalso functions s a ledge from which the viewermaypositionhimselfphysicallys he gazesout to theworldbeyond.No longer ccommodatingitself o the"rovingeye of God," theworldlandscapehas been adjustedto the human cale of theviewer.While thismaybe contradictedomewhatby the view down on to thepeasant, hisspatialambivalence s resolvedinBruegel'smonumental et oflandscapes f the1560s (fig.10), done forhisAntwerpmaecenas, iclaesJonghelinck. he introduction f thisnewspatialsense to the world landscapeformulamaybe understood n onelevel as the desire to depictnature n a moreconvincingmanner; t is atthesametime also an adaptation romtalian art.The impact f Italianartis alsoevident nthedominant olegiven o thefigures ithin helandscapesetting.It is notmerelyRenaissancepainting hatenters ntoBruegel'sFall ofIcarus,but also the concern with classical architecturemong Bruegel'scontemporaries,ouchedupon above. The crescent-shaped ortvisible nthedistance fBruegel's carus s laterrepeated n his ViewofNaples fig.11). What is noteworthyn the ViewofNaples s thatthe actualportofNaples isnot, nfact, rescent-shaped,uttrapezoidal. ruegel's naccuracydeviates from he manner n which the portof Naples was depictedbyotherartists.His reconstructionf theportofNaples may,however,beunderstood n relationship o Vitruvius,who recommended hatportsberounded.47While theemphasisgivento thepeasant n Bruegel'sportrayalf theclassical text is his characteristic eversal f conventionalprioritiesi.e.,historicalnarrative s. the mundane),the peasantand the natureof hisactivitymaybe understoodwithrespect o issuesregarding he nature fartistic ndeavor.48 hatwe seehere s a peasantwho is literally ubmittingnature o geometry, ence,an Italian sense ofpicture-making.he sameobservationmight n factbe made aboutthe workers n Bruegel'sTowerofBabel,who are transforminghe naturalrockfoundations f the earth

46For discussion f thedifferentpatialconceptions f Italian and FlemishpaintingntheRenaissance, ee Gadol,Leon Battista lberti,63ff.47SeeMorrisHicky Morgan,Vitruvius. he Ten BooksofArchitectureNew York:Dover,1914), chap. 12, "Harbors,Breakwaters,nd Shipyards."48For discussion fthepeasant nBruegel'sFall of carus, ee RobertBaldwin,"PeasantImagery nd Bruegel'sFall of carus,"KonsthistoriskTijdskrift5 (1986): 101-14, and EthanMatt Kavaler,"PieterBruegel'sFall of carusand the Noble Peasant,"Jahrbuch ntwerpen(1986): 83-98.



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Fig.10.Pieter ruegel heElder,Huntersnthe now. igned nd dated 565.Oil onpanel, 6 x 63-3/4 n. 117 x 162cm).Vienna, unsthistorischesMuseum. eprintedypermission

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Fig.11.Pieter ruegel heElder,Viw ofNales. Datable1562-63.Oil onpanel, 5-1/2x 27-1/4 n. 39.8x 69.5cm).GaleriaDoria,Rome.Reprintedbypermission



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224 The Sixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)into a Colosseum-like tructure.n a morefundamentalense, hepeasantgiving hapeto thelandmaybe understood s a referenceo thelandscapepainternrelationshipo nature.Understood s such, t is noteworthyhatattention s given again, as in the TowerofBabel,to manual labor - aparadigm, s itwere,forcreative ffort.At the same time,the image of the artist s one who fabricates heworldmaybe understoodnrelationshiposixteenth-centurytaliannotionsabout artisticreativity.n addition o the connectionmade n Italyduringthe Renaissance etween hevisual arts nd earning,rtisticndeavor amein thesixteenth entury o be associatedwiththe creative owersofGodhimself.49GivenBruegel'spreoccupationwithlandscapethroughout is career,it sperhaps f somerelevance hat hePromethean ense f artisticreativitythat arose duringthe sixteenth enturywas associated with landscapepainting.While fifteenth-centurytalian art was at one level committedto thenotion ofmimesis,which is to say"perfect"mitation, uring hesixteenthenturyhis oncernwasreplacedbythe notionoffantasia, herea premiumwas put on the way in which artistic reativityurpassednature.50 ddly enough, landscape,which throughout he Renaissancestoodas livingevidenceof thepowerofart as imitation,was now used asan instancenwhich artists ould be like God the creatorn re-fabricatingtheworldaccording o theirown conditions.Significantly,oththenarratives f the Tower fBabel and the Fall ofIcarus eal with ncidents elated othisPrometheanense f artisticndeavor.

49InRenaissance taly,the notion of the artist s God was closelyconnectedwith theconcepts f invenzionendfantasia. his is fully iscussed nMartinKemp,Leonardo a Vinci:The MarvelousWorks fNature ndMan (Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniversity ress,1981).See chap. on "The Exercise of Fantasia,"162ff.Quoting fromthe writings f Leonardo,Kemp states . . . thepainter s in thepositionof a microcosmicGod: paintingis notonlya matter fscience but also a divinity,he name of which should be dulyrevered nd whichrepeats heworksofGod and the mosthigh."' Kemp goes on to say,"At thehighest evel,therefore,he exerciseoffantasiawas a matter fthegreatest onsequence.Like Dante's altafantasia theconceptof elevated magination'which Leonardo would have known fromhisreadingof the Divinia commediand Convivio the visualartist's aculty f inventiongavehima 'divine'powerto fabricate is own universe, universewhich existedparallelto thereal one" (162).50Further iscussion offantasia s Martin Kemp's "From Mimesis to Fantasia: TheQuattrocentoVocabularyof Creation, nspiration nd Genius in the Visual Arts,"Viator.MedievalndRenaissancetudies (1977): 346-98. Fantasia s alsodiscussedn David Summers,Michelangelond the anguage fArt Princeton: rincetonUniversity ress,1981), esp. pt. 1,"Fantasy," 3-284. Whereasmimesiswas theprimaryoundationnwhich talianarttheorywas founded,n the sixteenthenturymimesis ame to bereplacedbyfantasia.While mimesiswas closelyassociatedn the fifteenthenturywithhistory ainting nd didactic oncerns npainting i.e., moralelevation), antasiawas associatedwithsensory xperience ndwith theacquisition ndmanipulationfknowledge-based rsensory xperience.Andwhilemimesis,as defined n Italianarttheory,was fully ealized npainting,fantasiaas neverfully ealizedin Italianart, t leastby wayof landscape not even in the andscapes fLeonardo himself.



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Pieter ruegel Italy 225In both works the textsdepicteddescribeprotagonistswho attempt oexceed their imits s humanbeings. carus ttemptslightnd the sraelitesattempto erect towerthatgoesbeyondhuman imits. n both nstances,theseprotagonistsre put in theirplace by theGod or godswhom theyin effect hallenge. n Bruegel'sFall of carus hispointis broughthomebytheway inwhich thenarrativetselfgives wayto themundane nd tothenon-significancef Icarus n the landscape.Bruegel submits o the paradox, f not to say the reality f artisticcreativity,n thathealludes oboth hegenius ndcraft f artisticproduction.And it maybe notedthatDaedalus, the father f Icarus,was knownasboth craftsman nd inventor. Interestinglynough,thistwo-fold enseof artistic reativitys acknowledgedby Leonardo, who, turning o theinstance f andscape, omments . . . ineffect,hatwhich s in the universebyessence,presence r imagination, e [the artist] as itfirstn "this headand then nhis hands ..,52 So muchforLampsonius'distinction etweenItalianand Netherlandish ainting.At one level,we mayunderstand ruegel's insistence n painting scraft,ust as thisadherence o landscape, s partof the sixteenth-centurydevelopment fself-consciousnessf the Netherlandish chool ofpainting.Bruegel'sart s not ust an affirmation,ut also a celebration, f his owntradition,nd this came at a timewhen paintersn theNetherlandswereattemptingo elevate Netherlandish rtbyattaching hemselves o Italianart and Italiannotions boutpainting.In his return o the world-landscape nd in his revival of Bosch,Bruegel ooks back to the "old Netherlandish" radition,nd indeed to an"anti-classical"radition,naffectedyItalianart. t is in thiswaythatwemay in fact understand aintings uch as Bruegel'sProcessionoCalvary,(fig.12), signed nddated1564,whichencapsulates etherlandishpaintingof the fifteenthentury nd the firsthalf of the sixteenth entury ncombining Met de Bles landscapewith a quotationfromRogervan derWeyden'sDeposition.53o alsomaywe understand ruegel'sFall of heRebelAngels fig. 13), signedand dated 1562, which is done in the manner fBosch, and is surely ntended s a "comparison"to Frans Floris' earlier(1554) Michelangelesqueversion fig. 14) of the same theme.

51SeeEdwardTripp,Crowell's andbook fClassicalMythologyNew York: Thomas Y.Crowell Company,1970), 185.52QuotedfromLeonardo'sParagone,rmaA. Richter, aragone: ComparisonftheArtsbyLeonardoa Vinci,London/NewYork: OxfordUniversity ress,1969), 52. 'Et ineffetto,ci6, ch'e nel' universoperessentia, resentia 'immaginatione,sso l'ha primanellamente,e poi nellemani . .'53SeeGibson,"MirrorfNature," hap. 5.



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226 The Sixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)r! . .. .. ...

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Fig. 12. PieterBrueggd heElder,ProcessionoCalvary ignedand dated1564.Oil on panel,48-3/4 x 67 in. (124 x 170 cm). Kunsthistorisches useum,Vienna. Reprinted ypermission

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Fig. 13. PietcrBruegelthe Elder. Fall ofte Rebe Angds.Signe and dated1562. Oil on panel,46 x 63-3/4 in. (117 x 162 cm). Muses RoyauxdesBeaux-ArtseBelgique, russels. eprintedypermission



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Fig.14.Frans loris, allof e Rebel nds. 1554Oil onpanel, 20-3/4 86in. 307.3x 218.4cm).Koninklijk useum oorSchoneKunsten,ntwerp.Reprintedypermission

"i.: :'-~_t',--' i.. ..... '~: '

Fig.15.Picter ruegel heElder, heHarveers. igned nddated 565.Oil onpanel, 6 1/2x 63 in. 118 x 160.7cm).Metropolitanuseum fArt,NewYork,Rogers und, 919 19.164).Reprintedypermission



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228 TheSixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)Turningto the magnificentet of decorativepaintings hatBruegeldid in the 1560s forhis Antwerpmaecenas, iclaesJonghelinck, e maynowappreciateustwhat kindof statementhis nsemblewasmakingfigs.10, 15).54Combining hesixteenth-centuryorld andscapewithfifteenth-century etherlandishalendar rt,Bruegelproduced monumentalecora-tiveensemble urely ntended o standon equal footingwith Italian art.This, in fact, s literally rue n that thepaintingshung in the companyof two decorative sets of paintingsby the leading Romanistartist nAntwerp t thetime,FransFloris.55 otably, he decorativeworksbyFlorisillustrated he LiberalArtsand The LaborsofHercules,which is to say,elevatedsubjectmatter.56Taken together, he Italianatepaintings f Floris and the landscapesofBruegelembodied the "avantgarde"of Netherlandishpainting n thesecondhalfofthe sixteenthentury. tthe sametime,Bruegel's andscapecycle,byvirtue f its monumental caleand its ocationwiththe talianatepaintings fFloris,demonstrateshewayinwhichNetherlandishpainting,as exemplified y landscape,had finally rrived.Thiscoupling f two eading ictorialrends, hich re na fundamentalsenseopposedto one another, uggests relationshipo a prevailingssueinsixteenth-centuryrt heory,heParagone.heParagone,r the"comparisonbetween hearts,"was intheforefrontf talianart heory fthesixteenthcentury.57n 1547, BenedettoVarchi deliveredhis lecture n theParagonibefore he FlorentineAcademy, nd in 1550 he published t.Notablythistextwaspublished nthe sameyear s Vasari'sLives, roducedbythe sameprinter,nd printedfor the samepatron,Cosimo d'Medici I.58This was54SeeWalterGibson,"In Detail: PieterBruegel'sTheHarvesters,"ortfolio (May/June

1981): 40-45;and FritzNovotny, ie monatsbilderieterruegel's.A. (Vienna:FranzDeutiacke,1948).55There asbeen little ubstantiveiscussion verwhatkindofmeaningful elationshipmayhaveexisted n thephysical elationship etweenpaintings s theywerehung nprivatepicture ollections n the sixteenth entury. eventeenth-centuryaintings epicting rivateart ollectionsmaybeofsomehelp naddressinghis ssue, hough tseems hat uchpaintingsare notentirelyccurate ecords fparticularollections. ordiscussion fpaintings epictingthekunstkabinet,ee Filipczak,Picturingrt,58-72.56On The Labors fHercules y FransFloris,see Carl van de Velde, "'The LaboursofHercules':A Lost SeriesofPaintings yFransFloris," urlington agazine 07 (1965): 114-15.For discussion f humanist ttitudes owardspainting n relationshipo thework of FransFloris, ee Filipczak,Picturingrt,23-45.57See rma A. Richter, aragone; lso LeatriceMendelsohn,Paragone. enedettoarchi's"Due lezzione" ndCinquecentortTheoryAnnArbor:UMI ResearchPress,1982). Paragoneor "comparison"refers o the debate on the relative tatusof the arts.The most famousexample,fromwhich it takes tsname, s found n Leonardo's TreatisenPainting, hereinhe argues hesuperior ankofpaintingwithrespect o sculpturendpoetry s well as music.Mendelsohn,p. xx, makes the pointthatparagoni efers ... to the literaryechniqueofcomparisonwhichmayselect as subjectmatter nytwo of severaldisciplines, tyles r evenindividuals."58SeeMendelsohn, aragone,n "BenedettoVarchi:The Scholar and hisMilieu,"3-33.



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Pieter ruegel Italy 229the artisticmilieu to which Giulio Clovio belongedwhen Bruegelwasassociatedwith him in Rome.Earlier, ome of the negativenotionsabout landscapethatprevailedamonghumanists ere touchedupon. t is thereforeomethingf a paradoxthat the example of landscape paintingwas duringthe Renaissance notonlyfundamentalo the notionoffantasia, ut as such entered nto theParagone egardinghe merits fpainting elative o poetry nd sculpture.Speakingof the superior tatusof painting n relationship o sculpture,Leonardocomments hat:

The art ofpainting ncludes n its domainall visiblethings, ndsculpturewith its limitations oes not,namely, he colorsof allthings n theirvarying ntensitynd the transparencyf objects.The sculptorimplyhowsyoutheshapes f natural bjectswithoutfurther rtifice. he painter an suggest o you variousdistancesbya change n colorproducedbytheatmospherend interveningbetween heobject ndtheeye.He candepictmists hroughwhichthe shapes of thingscan onlybe discernedwith difficulty;ainwithcloud-cappedmountainsndvalleys howing hrough; loudsof dustwhirling bout,thecombatantswho raisedthem;streamsofvarying ransparency,ishes t playbetween the surface f thewater and its bottom. . . He will representnnumerable ffectswhereto culpture annotaspire.59One of Bruegel'smajoraccomplishmentss a landscapepainterwasto portray living sense of nature,unmatchedby any of the artist'scontemporariesr those who came beforehim. More importants theatmospheric ffect, he sense of a physicalworld affected y the earth'satmosphere, y seasonalconditions, nd by the accompanying onditionsof climate hat onstitute ruegel'saccomplishments a landscapepainter.As one reads hroughmanyofthe remarksmadebyLeonardo on landscapepainting,t is first nd foremost helandscapes f PieterBruegeltheElderthatcome to mind.Speakingof the superiorityf paintingoverpoetry, nd again usingtheparadigm f landscape,Leonardo writes:If a painterwishes to see beautieswhich will enamorhim,he islordof theirproduction,nd if he wishes to seemonstroushings59QuotedfromRichter,Paragone, 04. "e tale arte abbracciae ristringen se tutte ecosevisibili, l che farnonpub la povertadella scultura, ioe: li colori di tutte e cose e loromininutioni;questaigura e cose trasparenti lo scultore i mostrera e naturali enza suoartefizio;l pittore imostrera arie distantie on variamento el colorde l'aria interpostarali obbiettie'occhioegli le nebbie, er e quali conficicultadepenetranoe spetiedelliobbietti,egli le pioggie,chemostranodopo se li nuvoli conmonti valliegli le polvere, hemostranoin se etdopo se li combattenti 'essamotori, gli li fiumepiui mendensi;questati mostrerali pesci scherzanti nfra a superfitie 'ell' acqua et il fondosuo ... e cose altri nnumerabilieffetti,lli quali la sculturanon aggionge."



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230 TheSixteenthenturyJournalXIII/2 (1992)which frighten r thosewhich are buffoonish nd laughableorcompassionate e istheir ordandgod.And fhe wishes ogeneratescenes,deserts,rshady nd cool places nhotweather, eportraysthem, ndsimilarly otplaces ncoldweather. fhe wantsvalleys,ifhe wishes afterwardso see the horizon of themountains,ndifhe wishesafterwardso see the horizon of the sea he is lord ofthem; similarly f he wishes to see high mountainsfrom owvalleys, r low valleys nd seashorefromhighmountains.And, neffect,hatwhich s in theuniverse yessence, resence,r magina-tion,he has it firstn his mind and then n his hands.60

As one reads about the artist reatingmonstrous nd buffoonishhings,theBoschianpaintings fBruegelcome to mind,while theartist reatingwhat is laughable or compassionatebringsto mind Bruegel's peasants.Leonardo's reference o the artist'sdepicting easonsbringsto mind theset ofpaintings ruegeldid forJonghelinck,nd the seasonaleffectsringto mindhis landscapes s a whole.We have observed bove that n the Renaissance he artof landscapestoodas theparadigmofNetherlandish ainting.Here, as a keyelementin theParagone;andscapebecomes paradigm orpaintingngeneral.Thiswas entirelyfitting. or one of the primarygoals of both Italian andNetherlandish rtthroughoutheRenaissancewas theconquestofvisiblereality. talianpaintingwas in a quite fundamentalenseconstrainednthisconquestby virtueof its classical senseof "measuredreality,"whileNetherlandish aintingwas freefrom hisconstraint.61ecause it was inlandscape hat realism"reached tspeak in Renaissance rt, tmaybe saidthat andscapeexemplifies hehighest ttainment hat arthad reachedatthetime.And, twas ultimately yvirtue f andscape hatpainting ould,once havingdeclared ts bond with the othervisual arts,now declare tsown special uniqueness.Within the context of this cultural ssue, thelandscapesf Pieter ruegel heElderreceive heir ullestnd most egitimatedefinition. t a time whenmanyNetherlandish ainterswereaspiring othe standards fsculpturend architecturentheir aintingsythe nclusionof classicalsculpture, lassical architecture nd the denial of atmosphericeffects, ruegelturned o landscapeand all the"painterly" ffects hat tafforded.

6?Quoted romRichter,aragone,1-52. Sel pittoreol vedere ellezze, he lo innamorino,egli n'& signoredi generale,et se vol vedere cose mostruose, he spaventino, che sienobufonesche,e isibili veramentecompassion voli, ei n'&signore t dio (creatore), se volgenerare iti e deserti,ochi ombrosio' foschi freschi)ne' tempicaldi,esso li figura, cosilochi caldine'tempeifreddi. e vol valli (al simile), e vole delle alte cimede' montiscopriregrancampagne, t se vole dopo quelle uedere 'orizzontedelmare, glin'e signore, se dellebassevallivol vederegli altrimonti, ' delli alti monti e basse valli e spiaggie, t in effetto,ci6, ch'& nel' universoperessentia, resentia 'immaginatione,sso l'ha primanellemente,e poi nelle mani ..'6See Gadol, Leon Battista lberti,3ff.



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PieterBruegel Italy 231Because much of hisreputationwas founded n hisdesignsforprints,Bruegelwent down in the sixteenth entury s a "second HieronymusBosch."62At the sametime,we are leftwith a mostfittingpitaphon thepainterby the geographer,AbrahamOrtelius,which marvelously ndfittinglyumsup the painter'sachievement.Commentingon Bruegel'sextraordinaryidelityo naturen a somewhat hetorical ay,Ortelius allsBruegel theApellesof ourage."63 houghappropriateiven he ignificanceofhisachievement s toucheduponabove, t snot ust Bruegel's realism"thatoughtto command our attention, ut also what we mayrefer o ashis "truth." peakingofBruegel'struth o nature n his portrayal f thehumanfigure,Orteliuscontrasts he artist's pproachwiththatof other

artists,who by trying o make theirfiguresmore graceful eviate fromtheirmodels as well as "true"beauty.Surelythe geographers referringhere to Bruegel's Romanistcontemporaries. etrospectively, e realizewhat sucha statementmeans withinthe context f sixteenth-centuryrt.The artist s understoodhere as beingmore attentive o nature hanart,nature and beauty being understood n the Renaissanceas one. In theliterature n Bruegel,his peasantshave been interpretedn a variety fways; but at a fundamentalevel, the peasantis primarilyn his artanextension fthe landscape, hat s, a humanmetaphor ornature.64While Bruegelbecamepreoccupiedn hispaintings fthe1560swiththe peasanton a new, monumental cale, his interestn landscapewassustained nd on occasion combinedwith thepeasant.His LandscapewiththeMagpien theGallowsfig.16) wascompletedate n hiscareer, ollowingthe set of monumentallandscapes hathe didforNiclaesJonghelinck. hisjewel-likepainting, s ifin deliberate ontrast o the largesize, sweepingsense of composition, nd broadhandlingof Bruegel'sMonthsfig. 17),

62Bruegelwas celebrated s a "second Bosch" by Ludovico Guicciardini, escrittioneitutti Paesi Bassi (1537), and byDomenicus Lampsonius, ictorumlquot elebriumermaniaeinferiorisffigies1572). Bruegel s also coupledwithBosch,though n a rather onfusedway,byVasariin the second editionofhis Vitede'piu ccelentiittori,cultori Architettori1568),in which short notes on the artists f the Netherlandsare derived from Guicciardini'sDescrittionend from ommunications entbyLampsonius.63It s well established hatBruegelwas acquaintedwithOrtelius,who owned at leastone painting The DeathoftheVirgin) y the artist. his paintingwas done in grisaille ndOrteliushad itreproducednengraving orpresentationohis friends.n hisAlbum micorum(preservedn PembrokeCollege, Cambridge),Orteliushonoredhis dead friend ya memorialnoticehe composed n the formof a fictitiousepitaph.On Bruegeland Ortelius, ee A. E.Popham,"PieterBruegelandAbrahamOrtelius,"Burlingtonagazine59 (1931): 188 ff.640n Bruegel's peasantssee Svetlana Alpers,"Bruegel's Festive Peasants,"Simiolus(1972/73), 163-76. Alpersrefutesmoderninterpretationsf Bruegel'speasantpictures sbeing exclusivelymoral sermons.



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232 The Sixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)

Fig.16.Pieter ruegel heElder,TheMagp intheGallowsigned nd dated1568.Oil onpanel, 7-3/4x 20 in. 45.9x 50.8cm).HessischesLandesmuseumarmstadt.eprintedypermission

Fig.17. Pieter rege theElder, heReturnf heHerd. igned nddated1565. Oil on panel,46 x 62-1/2 in. (117 x 159 cm). KunsthistorishesMuseum,Vienna. Reprinted ypermission



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Pieter ruegel Italy 233reverts o the smallsize and vibrant ichness haracteristicfearlyNether-landish rt. uchawork tands nmarked ontrast ith landscape aintingsuch as Maertenvan Heemskerck's andscapewith heRape ofHelen fig.18), completed n 1535/36.65n opposition o the classicalsubjectmatter,antiquearchitecturend the artificiallyonstructed enseofnature f VanHeemskerck'sandscape,Bruegel'sworkspeaks o boththetruth fnatureand to thetruthfNetherlandishictorialradition.ntheface fRomanism,Bruegelreverts o the tradition fJanvanEyck.66Nature, s defined nBruegel'sMagpien theGallows,xists s ametaphorfor"truth."Whereas in Italybeauty tood fortruth,tmightbe observedhere thattruth o nature tands orbeauty.This is nottruth,n the Italiansense,of artimitating higherorder,but rather he artistgivingvisualembodiment o a heightened tate of sensoryperception.67he literaryreferenceo the"magpie nthegallows" ntheforegroundfthepaintingis a referenceto the unpleasantnessof gossip, that is, secondhandinformation.68gain, we find a metaphorforBruegel's art,which inprinciple t least did not look at nature econd handin art,butlooked tonatureherself.Bruegel'saimsand accomplishmentss a landscapepainter, s well ashisrelationshipobothNetherlandish nd Italianpictorial raditions,maybeunderstoodistoricallynrelationshipo what reunderstoods mannerist

65See catalogue entry n Eric M. Zafran,FiftyOld MasterPaintingsn theWalters rtGalleryBaltimore:Trusteesof the WaltersArtGallery,1988). Van Heemskerckderivedboth his interestn classical art and his conceptionof landscapefromJanvan Scorel withwhom he studiedbetween1527-29. This paintingwas donewhile he was inRome,probablyfor Romanpatron.Nearlyfivefeethigh bytwelve feetwide,it is signedanddated n twoplaces. The artisthas in this landscapedepictedmanyof the actual siteshe saw while inRome.66Discussion of thispaintingwithin he context fNetherlandish ictorial radition anbe found n Gibson,"Mirrorfthe arth,", hap. 5.67Sensoryxperiencewas an essential spectoffantasia. ristotlen book 3 of De animadiscussesfantasias theimage-making aculty fthe mind. t is therefore otsurprisinghatin classicalantiquity,antasia nd paintingwere closelyassociatedwith each other. At thesametime,fantasiaanked s the owest form fhumanperception.Havingdividedthe brainup into threeventricles, ristotleputfantasian thefirst,ntellectn thesecond, ndmemoryin the third.A majordevelopment ccurred n the sixteenthentury henLeonardorelocatedfantasianthe econdventriclefthebrain, hus ombiningtwithhumanreason nd ntellect.Painting nd sensory xperiencehad sinceantiquity een equatedwith illusion,as opposedto truth. rawinguponthe ancient efense ffantasias useful n theacquisitionfknowledge,Leonardo nsisted hatfantasiawasknowledge peratingna specialcapacity.Most mportant,the concrete mbodiment ffantasia o defined, s nothing ess thana painting.68Thispainting s mentioned yVan Mander;see Grossmann, ieterBruegel,d rev.ed.,9: "In his will he bequeathedto his wife a paintingof theMagpie n theGallows.By themagpiehe meant hegossipswhom hewould deliver o thegallows."The imageof the artistas one who was devotedto "truth"s also evident nVan Mander'saccountofhow,"As longas he was inAntwerp, e kepthouse with a servant irl.He would have married erbut forthefact hathaving marked istaste or hetruth, hewas in thehabitoflying, thinghegreatly isliked."



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234 The Sixteenthenturyournal XIII/2 (1992)

- t

Fig.18. Maerten anHeemskerck,andpe wit te Rape fHen. Signed nddated 535. Oil on canvas, 8 x 160 in. 1473 x 383.5cm).Walters rtGallery, altimore. eprintedypermission

trends n late-sixteenth-centuryrt. If we understandmannerism" s aconsciousdisplayof artifice, s well as a sophisticatedmanipulation fpictorialknowledge,thenone mayappreciateBruegelas an artistwhoseinsistence n truth o nature onstitutedn effect rebellion gainst uchartifice.69hile there s indeeda real nsightntoBruegel'sart nOrtelius'statementhatthe artistmayhave died so youngbecausenatureput anendtohim for ear hathewouldoutdoher, uchanestimationfBruegel'struth o naturemustbe qualified.The issueof"realism" n Bruegel'sartis a genuineissue,but at the same time that issue mustbe understoodhistorically ithregard o thediscourse hatsurroundedhe relationshipbetween hetwo eadingpictorialraditionsn theRenaissance. aradoxically,and in a way thatis entirelyn keepingwith the self-consciousf latesixteenth-centuryrtvis-a-vis rtistic onvention,Bruegelattends o theartifice f bothpictorialtraditions s a meansof addressing he truth fhis own.

69n this n-rprttion of'nnerism," seeJohn hearman, anneris (HamondsworthPenguinBooks, 1967).

Documents

Jane Godsmith. Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the Matter of Italy