Day 243 - Bruegel, "The Harvesters"


 

April 2, 2021

Gallery 625 is devoted to 16th century landscapes, both northern and Italian There are interesting works by Patinir,  Piero di Cosimo, and a follower of Bosch, among others, but I want to focus on a painting I've always loved, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "The Harvesters." 

As many times as I've seen the work, I evidently never stopped to read the caption. Otherwise, I would have known that this was one of a series of six paintings commissioned by an Antwerp merchant to decorate his suburban home - a fact that, as much as anything, brings home to me the rising power and wealth of the haute bourgeoisie. Four of the other panels are in that room I adore in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Even at a time when I'm saddened by Charly's illness and the possibility that we will never again enjoy travel together, I realize how lucky I've been to have seen so much, including that wondrous room. 

Completed in 1565, the panel, executed in oil on wood, is, I would guess, something over  60" wide and 48" high.  It's organized along a diagonal that separates the golden field of wheat in the foreground from a green field in the near distance, other wheat fields in the far distance, and an expanse of blue-gray sky whose color evokes a muggy late-summer day. While some of the harvesters remain at work, most sit eating their lunch (bread and what looks like a porridge or maybe cottage cheese) under a tree; one man lies sprawled in sleep, his arm thrown over his head. Bruegel doesn't appear to have been concerned about depicting anatomical details: his figures are assemblages of cylinders and spheres, whereas each leaf of the tree is individually indicated by a brushstroke Something I'd never noticed before: dabs of brown paint individuate the wheat stalks at the front of the field. 

Two other things to note.  First,  the signage reminds us that this is an entirely secular, contemporary image,  unlike other works in the gallery in which landscapes constitute the backdrop for religious scenes or depict imaginary worlds populated by satyrs or other figures from classical mythology.  And second, the wheat suffuses the picture with a golden light. True,  a new skylight has been installed in the gallery; but  the light emanates from within the painting. Perhaps this is the main reason the painting inspires such a feeling of joy in me.



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