Late Northern Renaissance

Summary

This video script explores Northern Renaissance art in the Netherlands, highlighting its similarities to early Renaissance. It discusses the use of oil paints for vibrant colors and intricate details, often with symbolic meanings. The script analyzes 'The Money Changer and His Wife' by Quentin Matsys, illustrating moral themes in everyday scenes. It also delves into Hieronymus Bosch's surrealistic triptychs, suggesting they may have been intended for church altarpieces but were sold to aristocrats due to their uniqueness. The discussion includes the symbolic use of eggs, the influence of alchemy, and the depiction of hell. The script also touches on Peter Bruegel the Elder's landscape and proverb paintings, emphasizing the cultural and moral commentary of the time.

Takeaways

• 🎨 Dutch and Flemish art of the 16th century is characterized by its attention to detail and use of oil paints, which allowed for vibrant colors and symbolic everyday objects.
• 🖼 'The Money Changer and His Wife' by Quentin Matsys illustrates the genre scene typical of Northern Renaissance art, where everyday life is depicted with a moral underpinning.
• 🪞 The use of a convex mirror in 'The Money Changer and His Wife' is a nod to Jan van Eyck's 'Arnolfini Portrait' and signifies the material world.
• 🌌 The background of Northern Renaissance paintings often serves as a cautionary tale, reflecting moral lessons and societal expectations.
• 👨‍🎨 Hieronymus Bosch is noted for his unique and innovative style, which predates surrealism and is exemplified in his triptychs filled with complex symbolism.
• 🌐 Bosch's triptychs, such as 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', are rich with allegorical imagery, including strange creatures and landscapes that may comment on human nature and morality.
• 🔮 The crystal sphere in Bosch's work represents God's creation and references to Aristotelian theory about the universe's structure.
• 🔥 The final panel of Bosch's triptych often depicts hell, with punishment and suffering, suggesting a moralistic conclusion to the narrative.
• 🌿 Peter Bruegel the Elder is known for his large-scale works that focus on landscapes and daily life, marking a shift towards naturalism in art.
• ❄️ 'Hunters in the Snow' by Bruegel is the first monumental painting in the Western canon to depict snow, showing the reality of winter life in the Netherlands.
• 🗣️ 'Netherlandish Proverbs' by Bruegel illustrates over a hundred proverbs, providing social commentary and entertainment through visual metaphors.

Q & A

How did Northern Renaissance artists contribute to the use of oil paints?

Northern Renaissance artists were pioneers in the use of oil paints, which allowed for greater attention to detail and the use of bright colors.

What is a genre scene in art, and how does it relate to Northern Renaissance paintings?

A genre scene is a depiction of everyday life. Northern Renaissance artists often used these scenes to subtly convey moral messages or cautionary tales.

What is the significance of the convex mirror in 'The Money Changer and His Wife' by Quentin Matsys?

The convex mirror in the painting is a reference to Jan van Eyck's use of mirrors in the Arnolfini Portrait, symbolizing the material world and the marketplace.

How does the woman's attention in 'The Money Changer and His Wife' reflect the moral underpinning of the painting?

In the painting, the woman's attention is drawn to the material world represented by her husband's money, rather than her book of hours, indicating a moral commentary on the temptations of materialism over spiritual devotion.

Who is Hieronymus Bosch and how is he considered unique in the context of the Northern Renaissance?

Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch artist known for his unique and innovative works, sometimes considered a precursor to surrealism. His paintings often contain complex and fantastical symbolism that deviate from traditional religious themes.

What is the triptych by Hieronymus Bosch mentioned in the script, and what are its key features?

The triptych by Bosch is a three-part panel painting with a closed exterior and detailed interior panels depicting religious scenes. It features a crystal sphere on the front, and inside, it shows scenes of creation, paradise, and potential hellish imagery.

What is the meaning behind the crystal sphere on the exterior of Bosch's triptych?

The crystal sphere represents the unpopulated Earth before humans, with God creating the world inside it. It also references the Aristotelian theory of concentric crystal spheres that make up the universe.

How does the central panel of Bosch's triptych depict the creation of Adam and Eve, and what are some of the unusual elements?

The central panel shows God creating Adam and Eve in a paradise-like setting filled with animals and plants. Unusual elements include strange fountains, bizarre architectural elements, and creatures emerging from the water, suggesting a mix of reality and fantasy.

What is the potential meaning behind the eggs that appear throughout Bosch's triptych?

The eggs in Bosch's triptych could symbolize rebirth and resurrection, or they might represent the material world that one should transcend to focus on spiritual matters.

Who is Peter Bruegel the Elder, and how does his work differ from other Northern Renaissance artists?

Peter Bruegel the Elder was a Flemish artist known for his focus on peasant life and landscapes. His work often depicted daily life and included moralistic proverbs, differing from the more religious and symbolic themes of other Northern Renaissance artists.

What is the significance of 'The Hunters in the Snow' by Peter Bruegel, and how does it represent daily life in the Netherlands?

The painting 'The Hunters in the Snow' is one of the first monumental scale paintings to depict snow and winter life in the Netherlands. It shows hunters returning from an unsuccessful hunt and people enjoying various winter activities, capturing the essence of daily life during that season.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Northern Renaissance Art Characteristics

This paragraph discusses the characteristics of Northern Renaissance art, particularly Dutch and Flemish paintings. It highlights the use of oil paints, bright colors, and attention to detail. The symbolism in everyday objects and genre scenes with moral undertones are emphasized. The example of 'The Money Changer and His Wife' by Quentin Matsys is used to illustrate these points, noting the contrast between the material world and the domestic, religious sphere. The paragraph also introduces Hieronymus Bosch as a unique and innovative artist, sometimes considered a precursor to surrealism, and provides background on his life and work.

05:01

🌐 The Crystal Sphere and Creation

The paragraph delves into the symbolism of the crystal sphere in Bosch's triptych, referencing Aristotle's theory of concentric crystal spheres and the creation narrative. It describes the triptych's panels in detail, focusing on the vivid colors and the depiction of Adam and Eve, as well as the strange and fantastical elements that suggest a darker side to paradise. The paragraph also discusses the use of animals, architectural elements, and the potential influence of Bosch's local church's baptismal font on his work.

10:03

🔮 Surrealism and Symbolism in Bosch's Art

This section explores the surreal and symbolic aspects of Bosch's artwork, particularly in the Garden of Earthly Delights triptych. It describes the various panels, including a scene of a ritual with women holding power over men, strange couplings, and references to alchemy. The paragraph speculates on potential self-portraits and the meaning behind various symbols such as eggs, which could represent rebirth or a path to salvation or hell. The influence of Bosch's work in popular culture, like The Simpsons, is also mentioned.

15:03

❄️ Winter Landscapes and Daily Life

The paragraph discusses Peter Bruegel the Elder's work, focusing on his landscape paintings that depict daily life in the Netherlands. It describes 'Hunters in the Snow,' the first monumental painting to show snow, and captures the atmosphere of winter with hunters returning from an unsuccessful hunt. The paragraph also highlights the small, detailed scenes that depict everyday activities, suggesting a fascination with the simplicity and authenticity of rural life.

20:03

🗣️ Dutch Proverbs and Social Commentary

This paragraph examines Bruegel's 'The Netherlandish Proverbs,' a painting that illustrates over a hundred Dutch proverbs. It discusses the social commentary and moral lessons conveyed through these proverbs, which are presented in a chaotic and entertaining manner. The paragraph provides examples of the proverbs and their meanings, emphasizing the inversion of the world and the folly of human behavior. It also notes the influence of Bruegel's work on modern visual culture, such as Christmas cards and other media.

Keywords

💡Northern Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance refers to the period of cultural and artistic development in Northern Europe, spanning from the late 15th to the early 17th century. It is characterized by a focus on oil painting, detailed realism, and often a moral or religious undertone. In the video, the script discusses how Northern Renaissance art exemplifies these traits, particularly in the use of oil paints, attention to detail, and symbolism in everyday objects.

💡Oil Painting

Oil painting is a painting medium in which pigments are bound with a drying oil, such as linseed oil. It was a significant development in the Northern Renaissance, allowing for greater detail and color vibrancy. The script mentions that Northern artists were pioneers in the use of oil paints, which contributed to the rich colors and fine details seen in their works.

💡Symbolism

Symbolism in art refers to the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. In the context of the video, Northern Renaissance paintings are noted for their use of everyday objects that carry symbolic meanings, often related to moral or religious themes. For instance, the script describes how a convex mirror in 'The Money Changer and His Wife' by Quentin Matsys symbolizes the material world.

💡Genre Scene

A genre scene is a depiction of everyday life, often focusing on the activities of ordinary people. The script highlights genre scenes as a common feature in Dutch and Flemish art, where seemingly mundane scenes often contain moral messages. The painting 'The Money Changer and His Wife' is given as an example, where the characters' actions and the objects around them hint at moral lessons.

💡Moral Underpinning

Moral underpinning refers to the hidden moral or ethical messages within a work of art. The video script explains how many Northern Renaissance paintings, including genre scenes, have a moral underpinning. For example, the painting mentioned in the script suggests that the characters are more focused on material wealth than on spiritual matters.

💡Hieronymus Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter known for his detailed landscapes and allegorical figures. The script describes Bosch as a unique and innovative artist, sometimes considered a precursor to surrealism due to his fantastical and imaginative works. His triptych is discussed in the video, with its detailed symbolism and complex narrative.

💡Triptych

A triptych is a three-part work of art, typically hinged together and consisting of a central panel with two wings. The script discusses Bosch's triptych, which is noted for its intricate details and surreal imagery. The triptych format allowed for complex narratives and多层次的 symbolism, as seen in Bosch's work.

💡Surrealism

Surrealism is an artistic and literary movement that began in the 1920s, characterized by dreamlike and irrational juxtapositions. The script suggests that Bosch's work was so imaginative and fantastical that he is sometimes considered a forerunner of surrealism, despite living centuries before the movement began.

💡Peter Bruegel the Elder

Peter Bruegel the Elder was a Flemish painter known for his peasant scenes and landscapes. The video script mentions his work as an example of the Northern Renaissance's focus on daily life and landscapes. His painting 'Hunters in the Snow' is highlighted for its detailed depiction of a winter scene, showing the influence of his travels and the daily life in the Netherlands.

💡Netherlandish Proverbs

The script refers to Bruegel's painting 'The Netherlandish Proverbs,' which illustrates over a hundred different proverbs. This painting is an example of how art was used for entertainment and intellectual stimulation, as it invites viewers to decipher and discuss the depicted proverbs. Each scene in the painting represents a common saying, providing a commentary on human behavior and societal norms.

Highlights

Northern Renaissance art in the Netherlands during the 16th century showed similarities with the early Renaissance period.

The Dutch were pioneers in the use of oil paints, which allowed for bright colors and fine attention to detail.

Everyday objects in Dutch and Flemish art often carried symbolic meanings, hinting at moral or cautionary tales.

Genre scenes depicted everyday life but frequently had underlying moral messages.

The painting 'The Money Changer and His Wife' by Quentin Matsys illustrates the tension between materialism and spirituality.

The use of convex mirrors in paintings was a nod to earlier works like Jan van Eyck's 'Arnolfini Portrait'.

Hieronymus Bosch was a unique and innovative artist, sometimes considered a precursor to surrealism.

Bosch's triptychs often depicted religious scenes with a fantastical and surreal twist.

Bosch's works contained elements of cautionary tales, reflecting societal sins and potential punishments.

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch is a complex allegory filled with strange creatures and symbolic imagery.

Bosch's paintings were rich with detailed landscapes and deep space, reminiscent of earlier northern Renaissance works.

Peter Bruegel the Elder was known for his large-scale works focusing on landscapes and daily life.

Bruegel's 'Hunters in the Snow' was a monumental painting that depicted a winter scene with a sense of melancholy.

The painting 'The Netherlandish Proverbs' by Bruegel illustrated over a hundred proverbs, each with a moral lesson.

Bruegel's work often included scenes of daily life, which were influential in later art and popular culture.

Northern Renaissance art often contained moral underpinnings, reflecting the societal and religious values of the time.

The use of detailed symbolism in everyday objects was a hallmark of Northern Renaissance art, conveying deeper meanings.

Artists like Bosch and Bruegel were influential in developing the genre of landscape painting, focusing on the natural world.

The inclusion of fantastical elements and creatures in Bosch's paintings anticipated the surrealism movement.

Transcripts

in looking at art in the netherlands

during the 16th century

we noticed there are a lot of

similarities with the early renaissance

art they kind of took the ball and ran

with it

so what are five ways in which this oil

painting exemplifies northern

renaissance art

well it's an oil painting they they

really

were the ones that started the use of

oil paints

it has a lot of the bright colors that

come from oil paint

and there's a lot of attention to detail

and in that attention to detail there's

all these everyday objects that have

symbolism right that disguise symbolism

it's a genre scene which is a scene of

everyday life

and like most dutch art and flemish art

those scenes of everyday life that

appear to be just

everyday life often have a moral

underpinning

uh a background that is a cautionary

tale or a tale of

of morality of correct morality

so this is the money changer and his

wife by quentin mitchetts

and it shows a man whose occupation

is you know kind of like a pawn shop he

takes in

objects and pays you for them

and he is you know weighing the

different coins that he's taken

in his wife uh has her book of hours in

front of her so she's meant to be

um praying meditating but her attention

is not on that book of hours it's on

the material world right the the money

that he is taking in there

so a few details here

we've got this beautiful convex mirror

that

refers back to jan van nyk in the

arnolfini portrait

or petrus christus in his goldsmith in

his shop

and we see a man looking outside into

the world and that's

represents the material world the

marketplace and then of course her

prayer book represents

the female world the domestic sphere of

which

women are meant to be in charge of the

religious

education of their children and that

sort of thing but again she's more

focused on the material world

and outside her window here

is also another um issue that she

probably has

trouble with and that's gossip you can

see outside that window

that there are two men gossiping so it

it shows again a cautionary tale

a problematic

kind of sinful nature of people

especially this woman who's

drawn to gossip drawn to the material

world

a couple of the seven deadly sins

so there were also artists that were not

um in the tradition of the early

renaissance that were very unique

and very innovative and one of those

artists

i love because he was so unique and

is sometimes seen as the father of

surrealism along with

el greco and that's hieronymus bosch

so this is a triptych by bosh

he did religious works we know very

little about him he was

uh born and raised in herzegovina which

is

a dutch city small town um

and he was a prominent person married

into a prominent wealthy family

and he was part of a very religious

confraternity

that had a large influence in the city

that's about all we know about him

so after you see this work see if you

can figure out anything else you might

find out about him what you think about

him and his personality and his

viewpoints

so probably this was originally for a

church an altarpiece for a church

but uh it was so different

and it may not have

satisfied the requirements of the

population in the church and so

ultimately and probably pretty soon

after it was made

it was sold to a wealthy prominent

aristocrat in the city so the front

is of the triptych is the closed part

it's hinged like the other triptychs

we've seen

and it's this crystal ball this crystal

sphere

and inside is and it kind of looks like

earth and inside is the

pop is the unpopulated earth that seems

to be the earth before

humans were put on that earth to

populate it and up in the little tiny

corner

is a tiny image of god the father and

a quote from psalm 33 that says for he

spake it

and it was done he commanded and it

stood fast

so referencing god's creation of the

world

and this crystal sphere also references

the aristotelian theory

by the philosopher aristotle that the

universe was composed of these

concentric crystal spheres one inside

another and the planets

were attached to them and they all

rotated around each other

the website i have here i will give you

a link in

our canvas page because this is fabulous

high definition

resolution website on

all of the panels of this triptych which

i'm going to have you take a look at

after we're done here

so when you open it again it's like the

wizard of

oz it's you know gray and black and

white on the outside

then you open it it is this amazing

kaleidoscope of color so there's the

three panels the triptych on the inside

and we have on the left you can see

it's it's the beginning of the

population of the world you have adam

and eve that you can always tell if

they're naked

in the renaissance early renaissance

there or even

like northern it's adam and eve the

middle panel is filled it's just teeming

with people of all different sizes and

colors

and animals and plant life and then i'll

let you take a look at

the third panel and decide what you

think is going on there

the vista in the middle panel just goes

on and on

almost forever with incredibly deep

space and atmospheric perspective

and it kind of reminds me of an earlier

northern renaissance artist right

in that polyptych of the ghent

altarpiece

very very similar with the fountains

with the

landscape going deep into

almost an eternal viewpoint

but when we take a close look at bosch's

there's all kinds of craziness going on

so this is that the creation of man

panel

and it is god is creating adam and eve

um and adam's foot is touching god's

foot which is really

kind of cool it shows a rapport between

god and adam and he's kind of presenting

eve to him right here

and it's meant to be paradise there's

such of animals and birds

but if you start looking more closely

the creepy factor kind of sets in

there's very very strange

fountain here very very strange

architectural elements

there's these creatures that are kind of

coming out of the water

it almost seems darwinian to me of

course

centuries before uh darwin published his

origin of species

uh but it's almost this this primary

primordial ooze that they're climbing

out of

and then here and here you see all is

not

great um there's a you know animals

aren't getting along with each other

there's a cat that's got a lizard

and then up up here

there is a bear that

is attacking a deer and then there's all

kinds of birds flying around

and one of the primary birds that you

see

right in here in the center is an owl

and sometimes we think of an owl as

symbolic of wisdom

but also an owl is a bird of the night a

bird of darkness

so the owl sort of is a

poor tender of evil

so again here you can see that

lion capturing that deer

some of the animals are somewhat

realistic it's doubtful

whether hieronymus bosch ever got to

africa to see a giraffe but

there were some notable explorers that

came back from africa

and had these um books called bestiaries

that showed various animals so this one

was a very popular book

and we can see in some paintings

of giraffes that look very similar and

in fact

bosch's also look similar here you can

see a giraffe in this one as well

again some weird animals like this sort

of

half dog half kangaroo walking on two

legs

um some of them seem to be just made up

which is really pretty

cool the

fountains and the architectural images

in there

were thought to be just imaginative from

his mind

but if you look at the church where this

was possibly an altarpiece early on

this is what the baptismal font looks

like so you can see that was probably

the inspiration

for these types of figures here

so there you can see the fountain in the

middle

the water there is a group of

men riding around on animals

with a pond with women in the center it

seems to be some sort of ritual

the women seem to be holding them

enthrall as they continually circle

around them

maybe symbolizing the power of women to

corrupt

kind of going back to that idea of eve

being responsible for the original sin

if you look a little closer there's just

all kinds of

weird business going on there seems to

be a lot of coupling of males and

females in kind of very

bizarre ways um there's you can see

there's large birds

the birds the animal human world is sort

of topsy-turvy turned around there's

birds

feeding fruit to men

you can see there's lots of these more

of these crystals around

there are there's an owl again that kind

of signifier of darkness or evil

there's that owl again there's this sort

of sense of

a paradise in this terrestrial realm

as they're you know reaching for fruit

and all kinds of fruit everywhere but

somehow it's a bit gone amok

and then again lots of crystals and lots

of things that look a little bit like

test tubes

some people think that this had

something to do

with the idea of the science medieval

science of alchemy which is turning one

substance into another

especially turning things into gold

we're really not sure there are two

spots in which

the figures are looking out at the

viewer and when the figure looks out of

the viewer it's often thought to be a

self-portrait

so this may be a self-portrait of

hieronymus bosh

and notably he's pointing to the woman

sort of like

it's her fault she is maybe

the eve that's the cause of the original

sin again this is all really speculative

so now we have the last panel um

and what do you notice in the last panel

well

there's fire up here and there's all

kinds of

punishment going on weird punishment

there's this bird

of the night and he's sitting on

a commode or a potty chair and he's

ingesting

people and he's got this gold pot on his

head

and then he's pooping them out someone's

pooping gold coins in here

this monstrous figure has his hands all

over this woman

there's just a lot of creepy business

going on perhaps it's a depiction of

hell

right um and maybe you're being punished

for you know what you did um

in your previous life um

all of these buildings are on fire in

the top and that's a really

you know kind of classic depiction of

hell but there's also this depiction of

hell which i think is

equally as terrifying is it a frozen

hell and

they're naked and having to live in this

frozen land

so burning or freezing equally painful

and then we have things like music and

um but music gone awry

and often music was seen as a gateway to

hell right a gateway to the devil

there's

music written on this guy's butt

musicians have transcribed this and it's

this very atonal

unpleasant music this guy's strung up on

a harp

this guy is you know forever

in eternity having to be inside this

drum as this demon is beating it over

and over again so again

you know if they participated in

something that was seen as perhaps the

path to hell

they're going to be you know

living in in that punishment of that

type for the rest of eternity

and then we have the tree man and the

tree man again

might be a self-portrait because he's

looking out at us

and um there's all sorts of things going

on inside

um this is a bagpipe which is

um kind of a metaphor for a medieval

phallic symbol

there's people playing cards gambling

again all of these sins going on

but i love this tree man whose legs are

in this boat

it's just really you can see why he's

considered the father of surrealism it's

really

pretty crazy this knife through the ear

and then this this is a bit telling here

a man who's who's got a um probably his

will here his last will and testament

and he's being seduced by a nun

so that idea of you know the the church

kind of taking uh money you know this

was the beginning of

the protestant expansion into germany

and

the really complaints about the abuses

of the church

so a fascinating triptych i will post

that high definition website

um for you to take a look at just spend

some time with it there's so much to see

it's easy to just get lost in this

surrealistic dream world and then let me

know what you think the message

is a couple of just interesting little

asides

is that there are a ton of eggs in this

eggs all over the place

what do you think that might mean even

the tree man sort of looks

a little bit like an egg the the men

going around that in that circle around

the women

all are carrying eggs these people are

going into an egg an egg on

guys back in hell so some thoughts

um in the renaissance an egg was meant

to be

a sign of rebirth and that rebirth

being a metaphor for um resurrection and

uh you know the rebirth into heaven that

happens when a believer dies

also in medieval manuscripts we have

um images of ostrich eggs and

that is all that represents the material

world so an ostrich forgets his eggs

they believe

and doesn't lay on the eggs so man

should forget the material world and

focus on the star

which is heaven so it could be a path to

salvation or it could be

a path to hell you decide

one great place to see bosch's work in

popular culture

is the simpsons series when bart goes to

hell

so check that out it's great

another netherlandish artist of the late

renaissance is peter bruegel the elder

and this is a large scale work

and it's basically a landscape so this

is really the beginning of the focus on

landscape it is

animated by people but it is largely

just a beautiful rendition of daily life

in the netherlands with the exception of

the fact that

there's mountains here which you don't

see these kind of

mountains in the netherlands we do know

that peter bruegel

made a trip across the alps to italy and

that's how he sort of is recording what

he saw there

but most of this is another

netherlandish village

it was a commission from a

antwerp merchant and it could it was a

series we have six of them

left large size so it could have it's a

series of the seasons there could have

been 12 but we don't if

so we only have six left but this is the

winter one so hunters in the snow

the hunters are have their dogs they're

coming back from

their hunt i don't think it was a very

successful hunt

the dogs look a little beaten down and

discouraged a little melancholy

i mean they have just a couple of

rabbits hanging over

their shoulders it's a little hard to

hunt when it's such

you know winter snowy weather but you've

got a fire here going

this is um we have snow in

previous images

such as in the calendar pages of lady

travis shore to duke de berry

but peter bruegel's is the first

monumental scale

painting that shows snow in the western

canon

there you can see the dejected dogs

but they're coming home to this nice

cozy warm fire

and looking down at all the people

having fun enjoying the snowy weather

down below

and there they are you can they're just

little

you know dark silhouettes on on the ice

but you can

see exactly what's going on you know

some couples skating together

some little boys may be playing crack

the whip one person

carrying and pulling another on a sled

and then you've got so you've got your

eye travels down to

the fun that they're having and then it

kind of is caught by this bird as we're

flying over this

wide open beautiful atmospheric

perspective

with some you know churches and houses

in the snow and then on up

through the valley to the peaks of these

beautiful alps

i love the little vignettes i mean you

can just

kind of capture what daily life was like

as there's little cute little vignettes

throughout

a lady carrying that kindling home for

her fire on top of her head

another woman pulling her friend along

on the ice

another work by peter bruegel is called

the netherlandish proverbs

and a proverb is

a saying a saying that kind of tells you

about life so proverbs today would be

something like

a penny saved as a penny earned or a

watch pot never boils

or truth is stranger than fiction it's

sort of truisms that teach you about

life

and this is um kind of made for

entertainment again it would have been a

wealthy aristocrat who would have this

in his home

and you know instead of people going to

movies together or watching the tv show

together

or going to a play you know they didn't

have those sorts of entertainments

nearly as

much they were just beginning to have

opera

and that sort of mystery plays

but you would have someone in your home

and after dinner

you would show them this painting and

there would be all these things to look

at and talk about

every time they came over there would be

a different proverb to discuss and again

it

illustrates over a hundred different

proverbs

and sort of like hieronymus bosch it's a

little bit about the world

turned upside down so this is an example

of one

there is a lady putting a cloak over her

husband

and that is a metaphor for deceiving him

so she's carrying

on a fair behind his back and putting

the blue cloak

means that she's doing it behind his

back and hiding it from him

and then on the upper right is an

example of the world turned upside down

instead of the cross on top of the

sphere

the cross is down underneath it so

everything is the opposite

of what it should be so here's an

example on the left

two fools under one hood it sort of

means stupidity loves company

casting roses before swine you've

probably heard the

proverb don't cast pearls before swine

or casting pearls before swine means

to waste your effort on the unworthy

to bell the cat you know cats

usually are sneaky but if you bell the

cat you can hear what's going on so that

means to kind of carry out a dangerous

or very impractical plan

you can see the uh the knife in his

mouth

it means he's armed to the teeth or

to be heavily armed and you can see the

armor on him

way in the very back can you guess what

this one is

there's i have it blown up in the circle

blind leading the blind and then how

about this one

so this is to lead each other by the

nose or to fool

each other you probably recognize this

if you've

uh ever you know hit a writer's block or

you're trying to do something that just

isn't working out you know it's like

banging your head against a wall right

to try to achieve the impossible

this one you might recognize he's trying

to swim upstream right

it's not good it's like trying to oppose

the general opinion

just doesn't work and then this one

you've heard node crying over spilled

milk in this case it's porridge

one who spilt his porridge can't scrape

it all up again

same idea and then this one

he's trying to reach from loaf to loaf

uh if it's

like trying to live within your means

you can't quite live

from one paycheck to another from one

bread loaf to another

we can see bruegel also

in influence in christmas cards that

have

lots of scenes of everyday life and i

just saw this one in

barnes noble the other day on a record

album of flea foxes which is a great

tribute to

netherlandish proverbs