Landscapes. Émile Michel

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      The district in which Patenier was born no doubt contributed to develop his love of nature. He was surrounded by somewhat weird scenery but well calculated to delight a landscapist of those times. The situation of Dinant on the banks of the Meuse; the rapid course of the river, and such variety of scenery within so restricted a space, was just what the painters of that period delighted to depict. Far from endeavouring to simplify this already complex nature, Patenier seems to deliberately add to its strangeness by the crowd of heterogeneous details that he brings together. We have the sea; steep mountains; lonely, inaccessible rocks crowned by towns or dwellings; perspectives which stretch out on every side, and streams of water. In spite of this packing-in of detail, he does not appear to consider that landscape can be of sufficient interest alone to make it the exclusive subject of his pictures. He thinks it necessary to introduce episodes into them, but he restricts, more than his predecessors, the number of his figures. These supply him with titles. Thus we have the Baptism of Christ and other episodes that his predecessors had already treated and which, for long afterwards, were painted by his successors.

      Patenier, therefore, was certainly not an innovator. He attempted, with more success than anyone else up to that date, to increase the importance of landscape and to reduce that of the figures, though without eliminating them entirely. He was the first to adopt that systematic distribution of the three tones which is to be seen in his landscapes; the warm brown for the foreground to give relief, the more or less decided greens for the less important parts, and the blue for the distances. This distribution, in accordance with the laws of aerial perspective, lends itself to pretty contrasts. For a long time Flemish landscapists, no doubt following the example of the Venetians, had recourse to this method of obtaining effect which Patenier had inaugurated. We find traces of this method, more or less disguised, in all of them, and the exaggerated use of so simple an expedient gives a certain monotony to their work.

      With the landscapists of the close of the sixteenth century, this defect is more particularly noticeable. It is to be seen in the works of Jan Bruegel the Elder. Another cause of uniformity which lessens the value of these artists is the choice of their favourite subjects. We have Earthly Paradise, The Tower of Babel, The Deluge, The Massacre of the Innocents, Orpheus Charming the Animals, Fairs, Battles, etc; all subjects which allow the artist to increase the number of his figures and animals at pleasure. They yielded to this current of routine and vogue with an almost submissive ease. The history of art gives us only too many instances of this kind. Instead of trying to find direct and individual inspirations in the country around them, most of them went to other lands, particularly to Italy, in search of impressions which were necessarily superficial and confused. Landscape painting of such a kind is purely decorative, and its various aspects, insufficiently characterised, are not calculated to appeal to us.

      The Bruegels, Rubens, and Teniers

      Notwithstanding the decadence of Italy, its prestige in the outside world was continually increasing. In the Netherlands more particularly, the emigration movement could not fail to find favour with artists, for their own country was disturbed at that time, and they not only hoped for an easier life there, but had the prospect of a world-famed artistic education. On leaving their Flemish plains, whose monotony is only broken by a few insignificant undulations, the sight of the magnificently picturesque countries through which they passed naturally made a great impression upon them. Amazed and charmed as they all were, there were nevertheless some among them who were so deeply attached to their own country that, after a certain time, refusing to yield to the fascination which kept many of their fellow artists in Italy, they hurried back to their native land. Among these was Bruegel, one of the most curious and characteristic figures of his time.

      Pieter Bruegel the Elder was born around 1530; he belonged to a peasant family, which took its name from a Brabant village near Breda. He preserved, both in his talent and in his choice of subjects, the rustic stamp to the end of his career. He must, no doubt, have given proof at an early age of his artistic inclinations, since his parents, without making any difficulty, allowed him to pursue the calling he had chosen. He was apprenticed at Antwerp to an artist who was celebrated at that time, Pieter Coecke, a man who had travelled in the East and who had studied sculpture and architecture as well as painting. Bruegel also took lessons from Jerome Cock, better known as an engraver, who had an important business selling prints.

      Like his two masters, almost as soon as he was free, young Bruegel, who had been made a member of the Guild of St. Luke in 1551, was drawn into the current which had carried his fellow artists away to Italy. He went through France, and, as the inscription of one of his engravings proves, he was in Rome in 1553.

      Bruegel, however, did not stay long in Italy. Both his education and his tastes induced him to return to his own country. He must have been back in Flanders in 1553. In this picture we have a crowd of people of every age and rank, frolicking on the frozen trenches of the city of Antwerp. The artist was at home again among his fellow countrymen. He was a friend of peasants and liked to live among them. He was interested in their work, was present at their holiday-makings, and painted them just as he saw them: unembellished, heavy and awkward, knowing nothing of the graces of life, with sunburnt complexions and rough, unshapely hands. Bruegel scrupulously placed his rustic figures in their own surroundings. Behind them is the country where they live, with their simple cottages and familiar horizons. We find all this in the Peasants Quarrelling, and in the subjects taken from the Bible, which he transposed into a Flemish style. There is The Massacre of the Innocents, to which the sombre sky of a snowy day gives an additional note of sadness, and the Parable of the Blind. Both of these pictures are masterpieces. The peaceful nook, which is the scene of the latter episode, is rendered by the artist with as much truth as poetry. The fresh green of the meadows, the light and depth of the silvery sky, the humble air of the village and of its little church, the low hill which shuts out the horizon, the streamlet towards which the blind people are winding their way with uncertain steps, are all well thought out and expressed. He has no regard for acknowledged conventions and his work is marked by the originality of the conception, the confidence of drawing, and the strength and delicacy of colouring.

      Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Massacre of the Innocents, 1565/1567.

      Oil on oak, 116 × 160 cm.

      Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna.

      Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, 1563.

      Oil on panel, 37.1 × 55.6 cm.

      The Courtauld Gallery, London.

      Bruegel was greatly respected for his character and appreciated for his talent. Owing to his industry and to the fact that his productions included all kinds of pictures, his wealth and fame increased during his own lifetime. He had two sons who also became painters and a daughter who married David Teniers. The year of the birth of his second son was the culminating point of his career. It was in this year, 1568, that he signed his picture entitled The Blind, now in the Naples Museum. The Magpie on the Gallows, which he considered one of his best works, is currently located in Darmstadt.

      He did not long enjoy the happiness he had earned in so legitimate a way through his work as he died the following year, aged approximately forty-four. With him disappeared one of the most original figures of Flemish art. Just at the time when art seemed likely to be misled by the Italianising influence, Bruegel brought its best traditions into СКАЧАТЬ