Kelsey McArthur on Antwerp; Jamie Abou-Samra on Haarlem

Reading:

Murray pp. 209-226

Images: set number rt223-13 Image Database
N.B. not all images are in the database

Bruegel. Netherlandish Proverbs. 1559
Bruegel. Peasant Wedding. c. 1568
Bruegel. Peasant Dance. 1568
Bruegel. Four Seasons: Harvesters. 1565
Goltzius. Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus would freeze. 1599-1602
Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem. Adam and Eve. 1591-3
Cornelis Cornelisz. Massacre of the Innocents. 1591-3
Cornelis Cornelisz. Wedding of Peleus and Thetis. 1591-3
Cornelis Cornelisz. Monk and Nun. 1591-3

Summary: Kelsey spoke about Bruegel as an Antwerp painter: she pointed out that the traumatic and turbulent civil war going on in the southern Netherlands (today Belgium) between the Protestant Dutch and the Catholic Spaniards at the time. She gave an account of Bruegel's early work and his closeness to Bosch; and then illustrated how he turned to proverbial and everyday imagery in his later work. The patrons for this kind of image, she suggests, should be a vehicle for helping us interpret them. The circle of humanist merchants and intellectuals that are recorded as his patrons (though not for all the works she showed us) help explain the numerous vignettes in the composition and the subject matter - both of these are suitable for erudite conversation among intimate groups of such viewers. Kelsey also summarized the debate over whether the paintings are intended to strengthen class divisions at the time (by making fun of the peasants for upper class viewers) or to celebrate the humanity and naturalness of the peasants. She ended with a unique scene, the Harvesters, as a case in point.

Jamie talked about the painters of the Haarlem "Academy" in the northern Netherlands; Karel van Mander ("the Dutch Vasari"), Hendrick Goltzius (the printmaker), and Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (the painter). She pointed out that all three of these artists relied heavily on Italian sources, particularly the art of Bartholmew Spranger (CF Nadja's talk), which helps explain their mannered style. She spoke about the drive on the part of several of the artists (and in Van Mander's text, the "Schilderboek") to elevate the status of Dutch art and artists in the north to equal that found in Italy. Finally, she showed us four works commissioned by the city council of Haarlem in 1591 for the Prinsenhof (governer's mansion), at the time the residence intended for the military leader and elected "governor" of the province, Prince Maurice of Nassau. She suggested how each of the paintings might be read as a message for that governor from the civic body.

Terms:

Patrons:

Niclaes Jongelinck (for Bruegel Four Seasons)
City of Haarlem (for Cornelis Cornelisz.)

Artists:

Pieter Bruegel (c. 1525-69)
Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617(
Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (1562-1638)