I am new here, and sorry for my bad english.
I discover this great site looking around for info about “Lorem ipsum…”
and now because I discover a strange thing am writing for have some
explications.
I am working at one flash 5 file (from Macromedia).
The file is mad with educational intent and will be free completly free.
The file is a reproduction of the Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s
“Netherlandish Proverbs” . With the explication of the proverbs depicted.
In that paint, Brueghel depicted more than 100 idioms or proverbs.
Of course I surfed looking for high quality reproductions of the paint.
I founded several images, but at one accurate view of the pics, I discovered that
they show differents paints. They look as coy of one that should be the original
one.
Now, two questions :
1 they are several original “Netherlandish Proverbs” ?
2- Wich one ( or wich pics ) is the right one?
Thanks for the attention.
Incidentally, although I’ve got a lot of books on Breughel, the only one that actually lists and interpets “The etherlandish Proverbs” in my collection is the Time/Life book “Breughel” from their “Great Artists” series.
OOH! And suddenly a degree in northern Renaissance art did pay off!
There is really just the one-- 1559 in Berlin now (Gemäldegalerei). You may be seeing reproductions with bad color-- most of them, especially on the web, are pretty bad. There is, as Cal Meacham said, a smaller picture with 12 ‘roundels’ at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerpen.
And Bruegel usually spelled his name with no ‘h’ and the experts get their panties in a twist if you spell it that way.
A book I have lists 118 proverbs, but they also combine in interesting ways if you take a couple together, sort of affecting the meaning (proverbs being slippery things).
If you really want a good reproduction (the ones on the web are baaaad) you might have to write to Berlin and ask for a print. A thin book on Bruegel published by Taschen Verlag has a decent chart of the proverbs.
I can give you a THOROUGH bibliography on Bruegel if anyone needs it. . .
I founded another image that seems painted from another hand, but
is wrote:
Netherlandish Proverbs 1559
Oil on oak panel, 117 x 163 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
The differences between the two paint are big, enought to watch the man with the shovel or the
woman in red at the bottom center of the paint.
So the myster is still open.
The “THOROUGH bibliography on Bruegel” is welcome.
Thanks to everybody for the help, i will give credits at the forum for the help.
If you haven’t already, I would suggest you track down a copy of Mark A. Meadow’s Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Netherlandish Proverbs and the Practice of Rhetoric, which analyzes the painting in the context of the rhetorical traditions of the Renaissance, and also provides handy keys and explanations of the proverbs.
Pieter Breughel the Younger, der Jongere, is Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s son, as you have probably figured out-- he made part of his career out of copying his father’s work.
Already In Use-- I thought about citing Meadow’s work but it’s a bit complicated (and he’s an advisor of mine so I didn’t feel right plugging it, heh. And the book I think is put out through Waanders so I’m not sure how widely available it is). But now that someone else has brought it up I second the suggestion.
There’s a good introductory work on Bruegel by Walter Gibson. A Margaret Sullivan had tried to tie the proverbs to Latin proverbs rather than Netherlandsish ones, but the concensus is that this isn’t really necessary. There’s a start.
Another huge Brughel fan here. I’ve got a modern adaptation of his Hunters in the snow in a 5’x6’ oil in the library that incorporates the homeless with a stark N.Y.C. backdrop. Stunning work.