End Notes
“All life is here”: Bruegel’s Way to Calvary
To return to your place in the text, just press your Back button
[1] From 1809-15 it was renamed the Musée Napoleon.
[2] Also known as The Procession to Calvary (a painting under that title was also done by his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger) and Christ Carrying the Cross. Calvary is also known as Golgotha.
[3] Of the forty or so of Bruegel’s works that still exist today, twelve of them are in just one room, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In 2019, a major retrospective exhibition featuring Pieter Bruegel the Elder is being held at that Museum to mark the 450th anniversary of the artist’s death https://www.khm.at/en/visit/exhibitions/bruegel/.
[4] The biggest is the recently-attributed Wine of St Martin’s Day, c 1565.
[5] Alexander Wied, Bruegel (transl Anthony Lloyd), Bay Books, Sydney 1980 at 126.
[6] The painting has inspired an extraordinary 2011 feature film, The Mill & the Cross. The film is based on the book of the same name by the art historian/critic Michael Francis Gibson, whose work I have drawn on heavily in this article. You can find my reviews of the film HERE and of the book HERE.
[7] Michael Francis Gibson, The Mill and the Cross, University of Levana Press, expanded edn 2012 at 17.
[8] See, for example, the Brunswick Monogrammist’s The Road to Calvary (mid 16C).
[9] Gibson, op cit at 49, 53.
[10] Also known as Golgotha, “the Place of the Skull” (see for example Matthew 27:33). The Latin for skull is calvaria.
[11] Bruegel uses this device of obscuring the whereabouts of the main actor in a number of paintings; see for example The Census at Bethlehem, and The Fall of Icarus (discussed further in our article on that painting).
[12] In fact, the normal Roman practice would have been to require the person to carry only the crossbar, with the upright being already erected at the place of execution. The weight of the entire cross would have been considerable, and it would be difficult for one man to carry it any distance, let alone someone like Jesus who had already been whipped shortly before. For a detailed examination of the role of the Cross in Christian thought, see Robin M Jensen, The Cross: History, Art and Controversy, Harvard University Press. 2017.
[12A] Oberthaler et al, Bruegel; The Master, Thames & Hudson, 2018, at 200.
[13] Matt 27:44; Luke 23:39-43.
[14] Gibson, op cit at 84.
[15] Timothy Foote, The World of Bruegel: 1525-1569, Time- Life International (Nederland) NV, 1971 at 110.
[16] Gibson, op cit at 83.
[17] Wied, op cit at 127.
[18] Gibson, op cit at 12, 77.
[18A] Mary's blue robe has faded, due to Bruegel's use of the unstable pigment smalt: Oberthaler, op cit at 201 footnote 11.
[19] Wied, op cit at 128 citing M Auner, Pieter Bruegel: Umrisse eines Lebensbildes, in Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 52, XVI, 1956 at 51. Interestingly, a similar figure also appears in the far left of Pieter Aertsen’s earlier version of Christ Carrying the Cross (1552).
[19A] Oberthaler, op cit at 201 footnote 17.
[20] See generally Gibson, op cit at 103ff.
[21] Gibson, op cit at 104.
© Philip McCouat 2017, 2021
Back to HOME
[1] From 1809-15 it was renamed the Musée Napoleon.
[2] Also known as The Procession to Calvary (a painting under that title was also done by his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger) and Christ Carrying the Cross. Calvary is also known as Golgotha.
[3] Of the forty or so of Bruegel’s works that still exist today, twelve of them are in just one room, at the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In 2019, a major retrospective exhibition featuring Pieter Bruegel the Elder is being held at that Museum to mark the 450th anniversary of the artist’s death https://www.khm.at/en/visit/exhibitions/bruegel/.
[4] The biggest is the recently-attributed Wine of St Martin’s Day, c 1565.
[5] Alexander Wied, Bruegel (transl Anthony Lloyd), Bay Books, Sydney 1980 at 126.
[6] The painting has inspired an extraordinary 2011 feature film, The Mill & the Cross. The film is based on the book of the same name by the art historian/critic Michael Francis Gibson, whose work I have drawn on heavily in this article. You can find my reviews of the film HERE and of the book HERE.
[7] Michael Francis Gibson, The Mill and the Cross, University of Levana Press, expanded edn 2012 at 17.
[8] See, for example, the Brunswick Monogrammist’s The Road to Calvary (mid 16C).
[9] Gibson, op cit at 49, 53.
[10] Also known as Golgotha, “the Place of the Skull” (see for example Matthew 27:33). The Latin for skull is calvaria.
[11] Bruegel uses this device of obscuring the whereabouts of the main actor in a number of paintings; see for example The Census at Bethlehem, and The Fall of Icarus (discussed further in our article on that painting).
[12] In fact, the normal Roman practice would have been to require the person to carry only the crossbar, with the upright being already erected at the place of execution. The weight of the entire cross would have been considerable, and it would be difficult for one man to carry it any distance, let alone someone like Jesus who had already been whipped shortly before. For a detailed examination of the role of the Cross in Christian thought, see Robin M Jensen, The Cross: History, Art and Controversy, Harvard University Press. 2017.
[12A] Oberthaler et al, Bruegel; The Master, Thames & Hudson, 2018, at 200.
[13] Matt 27:44; Luke 23:39-43.
[14] Gibson, op cit at 84.
[15] Timothy Foote, The World of Bruegel: 1525-1569, Time- Life International (Nederland) NV, 1971 at 110.
[16] Gibson, op cit at 83.
[17] Wied, op cit at 127.
[18] Gibson, op cit at 12, 77.
[18A] Mary's blue robe has faded, due to Bruegel's use of the unstable pigment smalt: Oberthaler, op cit at 201 footnote 11.
[19] Wied, op cit at 128 citing M Auner, Pieter Bruegel: Umrisse eines Lebensbildes, in Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 52, XVI, 1956 at 51. Interestingly, a similar figure also appears in the far left of Pieter Aertsen’s earlier version of Christ Carrying the Cross (1552).
[19A] Oberthaler, op cit at 201 footnote 17.
[20] See generally Gibson, op cit at 103ff.
[21] Gibson, op cit at 104.
© Philip McCouat 2017, 2021
Back to HOME