End Notes
Bruegel’s White Christmas: The Census at Bethlehem
To return to your place in the text, jus press your Back button
[1] Museum Van Den Burgh, “The Census at Bethlehem” https://www.museummayervandenbergh.be/en/page/census-bethlehem
[2] A donkey and ox are traditionally depicted in Nativity scenes
[3] It appears that there is very little non-Biblical evidence that Augustus did in fact decree an Empire-wide census in which everyone had to return to their “own city”: Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible & Why We Don’t Know About Them, Harper Collins, 2009
[4] For example, The Way to Calvary
[5] Alexander Wied, Bruegel (transl Anthony Lloyd), Bay Books, Sydney 1980, at 146; see further discussion in our article on Hunters in the Snow
[6] Wied, op cit at 144
[7] Many of the extreme close-ups of the painting that are used in this article are drawn from Google Arts and Culture https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-census-at-bethlehem-%C2%A0/zQKyGcrY3z1hKQ]; and Ginny Burges, https://rhapsodyinwords.com/2018/12/24/whats-in-a-painting-taking-a-closer-look-at-pieter-bruegel-the-elders-masterpiece-the-census-at-bethlehem-c-1566/
[8] Wied, op cit at 144
[9] Wied, op cit at 144
[10] Wied, op cit at 144
[11] Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, chapter “A Village in Winter”, What Great Paintings Say. Vol 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2003, at 186
[12] Hagen, op cit at 184
[13] Wied, op cit at 144-45. It’s also been suggested, by the way, that the structure is possibly based on the towers and gate of Amsterdam Castle
[14] Hagen, op cit at 84
[15] It is interesting how many spoked wheels appear in the painting
[16] Wied, op cit at 144
[17] The 14th was only discovered in 2013: Jan Dalley: “Pieter Breughel the Younger: The Census at Bethlehem”, Financial Times, 12/10/2013 https://www.ft.com/content/20ac37e8-30da-11e3-b991-00144feab7de
[18] In association with members of his studio. His surname was by then being spelt with an “h”
[19] It is also possible that some differences emerged because the son may only have had access to Bruegel’s preparatory sketches, not the original painting
[20] Timothy Foote, The World of Bruegel: 1525-1569, Time- Life International (Nederland) NV, 1971 at 104
[21] See Jacques Keilo, “The coat of arms of the Empire in Bruegel’s Census at Bethlehem, Continuity of the Centre” in Hypotheses, 23/11/2016 https://centrici.hypotheses.org/1000
© Philip McCouat 2021
RETURN TO HOME
[1] Museum Van Den Burgh, “The Census at Bethlehem” https://www.museummayervandenbergh.be/en/page/census-bethlehem
[2] A donkey and ox are traditionally depicted in Nativity scenes
[3] It appears that there is very little non-Biblical evidence that Augustus did in fact decree an Empire-wide census in which everyone had to return to their “own city”: Bart D. Ehrman, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible & Why We Don’t Know About Them, Harper Collins, 2009
[4] For example, The Way to Calvary
[5] Alexander Wied, Bruegel (transl Anthony Lloyd), Bay Books, Sydney 1980, at 146; see further discussion in our article on Hunters in the Snow
[6] Wied, op cit at 144
[7] Many of the extreme close-ups of the painting that are used in this article are drawn from Google Arts and Culture https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-census-at-bethlehem-%C2%A0/zQKyGcrY3z1hKQ]; and Ginny Burges, https://rhapsodyinwords.com/2018/12/24/whats-in-a-painting-taking-a-closer-look-at-pieter-bruegel-the-elders-masterpiece-the-census-at-bethlehem-c-1566/
[8] Wied, op cit at 144
[9] Wied, op cit at 144
[10] Wied, op cit at 144
[11] Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, chapter “A Village in Winter”, What Great Paintings Say. Vol 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2003, at 186
[12] Hagen, op cit at 184
[13] Wied, op cit at 144-45. It’s also been suggested, by the way, that the structure is possibly based on the towers and gate of Amsterdam Castle
[14] Hagen, op cit at 84
[15] It is interesting how many spoked wheels appear in the painting
[16] Wied, op cit at 144
[17] The 14th was only discovered in 2013: Jan Dalley: “Pieter Breughel the Younger: The Census at Bethlehem”, Financial Times, 12/10/2013 https://www.ft.com/content/20ac37e8-30da-11e3-b991-00144feab7de
[18] In association with members of his studio. His surname was by then being spelt with an “h”
[19] It is also possible that some differences emerged because the son may only have had access to Bruegel’s preparatory sketches, not the original painting
[20] Timothy Foote, The World of Bruegel: 1525-1569, Time- Life International (Nederland) NV, 1971 at 104
[21] See Jacques Keilo, “The coat of arms of the Empire in Bruegel’s Census at Bethlehem, Continuity of the Centre” in Hypotheses, 23/11/2016 https://centrici.hypotheses.org/1000
© Philip McCouat 2021
RETURN TO HOME