I have chosen to write about Pieter Brueghal and his Netherlandish Proverbs painting. Completed in Berlin in 1559, this oil-on-oak-panel painting really stands out to me. There is so much going on. Apparently just about every person or action taking place in this painting has a reference to a Flemish proverb from this time period. There are 100 references in this single painting. His intention was to depict the stupidity of humans. I enjoy checking out what each person is doing and how I would feel if I was standing near by. There is a sense of humanism in this painting. The artist has studied people and depicted their nature or behavior in this work.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Flemish Painter and he received support from the royalties of Spain; Charles V and the Hapsburgs. His paintings more often reflect the peasants of the time rather than the church or the royalties. Bruegel’s paintings, including Netherlandish Proverbs, are influenced by Humanism and Hieronymous Bosch. The influence of humanism is why he painted human nature often as it is, and that it is not always beautiful.
The proverb reference that I enjoy the most is the man who cannot stretch between 2 loaves of bread. This is meant to mean he is no good with money. It reminds me of myself in a way, and makes me happy that I have a wife that is good with money (so I give all that I earn to her). Another that I find interesting is the woman carrying fire in one hand and water in another. This means that she is deceitful. This reminds me of an ex supervisor who would tell the crew one thing and the boss another; he would work both sides for his benefit. I guess that is why I like this painting so much, I can understand the proverbs, with help from my sources, and relate them to my life.
Sources:
Wisse, Jacob. “Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525/30–1569)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/brue/hd_brue.htm (October 2002)
dannerak 
First off, you hit all the point required as I see it.
Now.. wow. You took a completely different approach at this than I did, and I’m impressed. I liked how you correlated your research findings to your own personal experiences. That is an excellent method for really learning about something, by making it relate to you. Now you’re making me second guess my entry! I particularly liked your explanations of a few of the proverbs being portrayed. I had not seen this piece prior to today and must say I like it a lot also. I was debating on writing on Bosch, and their works are very similar.
Your writing was very well structured and included all of the elements needed, the points were very succinct and explained well. I can honestly say I wouldn’t change anything. This was a good read, thanks.
I really like this piece. Brueghal chose to showcase the peaseants and commoners instead of the royalty. Its interesting how everyone in the painting is doing something and what it all means. Your well researched on this piece and you give a god description of what the individuals are doing and what they symbolize. I also like how you related what they were doing to experiences in your own personal life. Good Blog!
I really enjoy Brueghal’s art as well. There is so much going on in his paintings that every time you look at the picture you notice something new. I feel like it would be kind of fun to play ISpy in his pictures because he has so much going on it them. I thought you did a very good job describing the painting and what was being depicted in it. It looks like you have everything that you did good work!
I love the chaos in this piece. It TOTALLY looks like an Ispy or a where’s Waldo piece. Once I find one thing I am instantly drawn to another. I loved your description and detail to the Humanistic perspective. I also like that you related it to your life and how messy and wonderful like can be.
I like this painting, and I think that you did a good write-up about it. This is a very busy looking painting with a lot going on. To me, this is one of those pieces that is almost overwhelming when you first look at it. My first reaction to this painting, once the initial sensory shock wore off a bit, was I found myself wondering where to start. That’s about the time that the painting took over and…”wait a minute, are those pies on the roof? Why the heck are there pies on the roof?”. I was hooked after that. Yeah, this was a very cool painting that I enjoyed tremendously.
I also enjoyed knowing a little of the background about it. I was glad that you explained to us the general idea of the painting–that it was a reference to various porverbs, and meant to depict the “stupidity” of humans. I thought it was good that you were able to relate a couple of the stories to you personal life. I think it helps us enjoy art a little more if we can relate to them in some way. And I am sure that many people (myself included) can relate to the stories you shared. I do wish, however, that you would have given us a little more of the story. For instance, why do the given stories mean what they mean? Maybe the artist meant to leave it to the audience to come up with their own conclusions as to what he meant. I also wish you could have explained where in the painting to look for what you were talking about…maybe give us an idea where to look because I still don’t see the woman you were talking about.
Overall, I think you did a good job. It seems to me like you met all the criteria in your write-up. I enjoyed this artwork and your description of it. Thanks for sharing!
I quite enjoyed reading your post, because it made me research and think. I came across this picture from Pieter Brueghel’s before, but I never paid close attention to it. You got all the essential information and your post made me curious to read more about the painting. I liked how you explained some of the proverbs and explained what it reminded you of and how they relate to your life. I looked up the picture in Wikipedia and found the whole chart about the proverbs. The one I liked the most was ‘The herring hangs by its own gills’. It means that you must accept responsibility for your own actions. This is so true and I think we could solve a lot of problems if everybody would do that! I hope I can teach that to my little son!
I love this piece because of everything that is going on. I love when artists present their art in unique and crazy forms like this; it definitely gives the viewers countless ways of interpreting it and I feel that that is what art is all about.
In your analysis, you met all the criteria from what I could tell. All the necessary basic information is all there along with your view of the piece and your tie to humanist art.
I like that you were able to incorporate this work of art into personal experiences and people you know. Like I said earlier, the best part of art is that you can view it in so many ways and you can therefore relate to it in so many ways. I feel that this piece is definitely easy to relate to because there is so much going on that you when you look at it, it would be hard NOT to find something to relate to.
Another thing that I liked about your analysis is the fact that you pointed out that Brueghal shied away from royalties and religion. This aspect is something that I really like about this artist. I only mean this in the fact that I enjoy artists who step out of the “norm” so to speak. It sets him apart from other artists of his time by painting peasants and lower class, or rather the “real” humans of the time; the humans that were, like you said, not always “beautiful”.
Great job. =)
This painting is very interesting and you did a great job portraying it. You covered all necessary factual information and I liked the way you connected it with humanism. I feel the same way about how it’s beauty stems from the story of the painting, aka the proverbs. It’s very symbolically dense.