Sharjah: Aladdin Mahmoud
The Dutch Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder «1525-1569» is one of the most famous figures who practiced art in the 16th century, the most brilliant and genius, as he had his mark in depicting rural life, which he excelled in drawing and expressing in warm colors that make the scenes vibrant, He approached the life of the simple and tried to express their daily suffering, which confirmed his artistic importance and uniqueness, as he is considered the most important satirical painter in the Netherlands after Hieronymus Bosch. Frightening scenes of mythical beings, and among the most famous paintings of Brueghel the Father: “Winter”, “Peasant Dance”, “Hunters on Snow”, “Harvest”, and other artistic masterpieces.
Bruegel was born in a village near the city of Breda called Bruegel, from which he took his name by which he became famous, and became a sign and symbol of excellence and unique creativity. “Anvers”, and there he learned the art of drawing and painting at the hands of the teacher “Pierre Cook”, who was the mayor of arts in that city that was known for the development of the artistic movement at that time, and indeed Bruegel learned a lot from Cook and studied the works of great artists, which tempted him to go To Italy, where the artists of the Renaissance were at the height of their artistic brilliance, where he wandered around Italy, the capital of the arts, as well as Sicily, so he acquired new knowledge and artistic methods, but he preserved his own Flemish character, as he was keen to depict local scenes, especially landscape Rural and peasant life, and he rebelled against the rules and paths of renaissance art, through his subjects that he insisted on drawing, and the result of that act was many paintings and works that immortalized over the times, as he continued after his return to “Anvers”, in drawing the life of the peasants.
The painting “The Blind”, or “The Man Leading the Caravan of the Blind”, which was drawn with chalk paint, is one of his most famous works and is considered one of the icons of Dutch and international art. Art Raymond Kuniat: “In Bruegel’s paintings, scenes of peasants appear in their gloomy black clothes and their slow steps, and they carried their needs on their bent backs, as if they were carrying a burial concern born with them, and the snow accumulated on the meadows and roads often increases the suggestion of this sad character.” This description Indeed, it applies to many of Bruegel’s works, including this wondrous painting “The Blind Ones”, which found great resonance in the era in which it was painted and still is to this day. Bruegel painted it late in his life, and perhaps the crowding of the painting with symbols and natural scenes indicates that the work space It is the countryside, where the peasants and the simple and tired of people.
Describe
In “The Blind,” Bruegel paints a scene in which a group of blind people, or a convoy of them, appears in their clothes in a winter weather in the countryside. And in this scene, Bruegel excelled in depicting the human misery of these people, as confusion and perhaps loss appear in the faces of the blind, as if they were expecting a catastrophe, and the painting shows that the leader had fallen into a groove, and because they all clung to each other through sticks, it seems that they are all about to fall , while a cowherd is seen in the background of the painting.
It was known about the painting that it emerged as a clear example of Brueghel’s ingenuity and technical proficiency, and his ability to observe and capture small details, as each of these blind people has a different defect in his eye, and the men in the painting are seen with heads facing upwards in an attempt to make optimal use of their other senses. While the slanted appearance of the painting enhances the unbalanced movement of the six figures staggering forward turbulently, the painting is also considered a masterpiece due to its delicate details and elaborate structure.
The painting refers to Brueghel’s knowledge and his vast culture, as the work has raised a wave of questions among critics and art professionals about the intended blindness in the painting, and is it real or metaphorical? Many art historians indicated that the painting was crowded with symbols and intellectual and philosophical visions. Where many of them confirmed that the artist refers to the loss and confusion of man and his search for destiny.
worlds
The work drew the attention of the creators of poets and novelists, as it inspired many of them, such as the poets Charles Baudelaire and William Carlos Williams, and there is a novel written by the writer Gerd Hoffman, inspired by the painting, but the most famous of these sumptuous writings about the worlds of the painting, that poem written by the poet Erich Lotus , who lost his sight in the First World War, so he summoned that painting to write this text:
The bell jingles throughout the house/ And terror shakes the heart of the still night/ And reluctantly sleep dries up my eyelids/ In a dream I saw the picture/ The last of the painter Brueghel/ Towards imminent death the feet of six men stumble/ The spheres in the sockets of the eyes are hollow/ Not shining/ And the beam of the living is likewise extinguished/ And all clung to a rod and felt its path / They fell into the grip of a blind fate / And they rushed into the blind night.
