Bruegel's The Triumph of Death Reconsidered

Abstract

'In all his works more is always implied than is depicted.'—Abraham Ortelius, ‘Epitaph’ for Pieter BruegelIf, in a sense, all artists comment on their times, only a few do so deliberately. Pieter Bruegel the Elder is the first great example of the latter type, the artist as social observer and critic. His detailed scenes of everyday life, his illustrations of proverbs and moral lessons in contemporary settings are all well known. Recently, however, art historians have become increasingly aware of less obvious social and political overtones in Bruegel's work. Paintings from the last ten years of his life, ranging from the tiny Chained Monkeys to vast scenes like The Suicide of Saul, The Conversion of Saint Paul, and The Massacre of the Innocents, have all been interpreted as veiled but pointed commentaries on conditions and events in the Netherlands during the mid-sixteenth century. The facts of history, it appears, may be highly pertinent to Bruegel's art.

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