Pieter Bruegel the Elder a Hunters in the Snow
Peter Soloway
ARH 205
6/7/2005
Hunters in the Snow, sometimes called The Return of the Hunters1, is part of a
series of landscapes painted on wooden panels and themed around characteristic periods
of the year. The series was finished in 1565 by Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
probably for Antwerp merchant Nicholas Jongelinck, who we know entrusted it to the
town of Antwerp in February of 1566.2 The five surviving paintings from the series are
The Return of the Herd, Hunters in the Snow, and The Gloomy Day, which now reside
together at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, as well as Haymaking (Národní
Galerie, Prague), and The Harvest (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.)
These panels share several common features in composition and subject matter.
Obviously, all are involved with the peasant lifestyle, and depict the seasons through the
chores and events with which they are associated. In this respect the series is not unlike
the medieval tradition of “Labors of the Months”, common depicted in illuminated books
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Cuttler points out that Bruegel’s peasant figures,
like those in traditional works, are never idealized, and are always used to represent a
type of person, rather than an individual character. Where the panels tend to differ from
the illuminations, however, is in their tone. Bruegel appears more interested in the
physical nature of the activities and their relation to the natural world,3 than the particular
passage of time. Through his use of predominantly diagonal-flowing compositions, he
leads the viewer’s eye over vast expanses of wild territory featuring lively flora and
1
Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel (Paris, 1997), p. 152
Ibid.
3
Charles D. Cuttler, Northern painting from Pucelle to Bruegel: fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
centuries (New York, 1968), p. 478
2
fauna, and (except in The Harvest) dramatic rock formations. Human figures are inserted
into these landscapes, engaging in their own smaller dramas — Hunters in the Snow
features distant firefighters putting out a chimney fire, and The Gloomy Day includes
several shipwrecks — and we are above all made aware of man’s subjection to, and
reliance on, the movements of the natural world.
The specific purpose of the series is difficult to know. Several sources have
speculated that they were made to be hung as a continuous frieze in the reception room of
Jongelinck’s palatial home, but none cite specific evidence of such intent. Further
speculation has nevertheless been made, based on this assumption and on the scraps of
available evidence, as to the order and context in which the paintings were intended to be
hung. Most historians argue either that the series originally comprised twelve panels, or
six — each corresponding with a month or pair of months. The six-panel theory is the
more traditional, and it is appealing because of the difficulty in matching many of the
paintings to a traditional representation of any single month; Delevoy points to The
Gloomy Day, in which one figure wears a paper crown — a part of the Twelfth Night
celebration held in January — and others engage in pruning willow trees — a chore
traditionally performed in February4. Proponents of the twelve-panel theory, as Stechow
points out, are supported by Jongelinck’s inventory, which lists “sixteen paintings by
Bruegel, among them The Tower of Babel, A Procession to Calvary, The Twelve
Months.” Not only does it refer to the series in terms of twelve months, but Stechow also
deems it more likely that only two of the six paintings were omitted from the inventory,
rather than the eight that would have to have been left out had the series only numbered
4
Robert L. Delevoy, Bruegel: historical and critical study. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. (Geneva, 1959), p.
115
six.5 Stechow goes on to argues that Hunters in the Snow was the first panel of the series,
based on the rightward flow of the composition and on his assertion that it represented
January.6 The latter point appears moot based on the fact that April, not January, was
recognized as the first month of the year prior to the instatement of the Gregorian
calendar in 15827. Delevoy prefers The Harvest as an initial painting, based on its
emphasis on individual figures rather than their natural surroundings, which makes it
seem less developed than the rest.8
Pieter Bruegel’s life history is also marked by a shortage of specific records; the
earliest definite date in his lifetime is that of his enrollment as a master in the guild of St.
Luke, in Antwerp, which was recorded in the guild register of 1551. Based on a typical
age of enrollment between 20 and 25, and assuming he had not been previously enrolled
as a master with another guild, we can tentatively place Bruegel’s birth sometime
between 1525 and 1530.9 The location of Bruegel’s birth is equally disputable. His
earliest biographer10, Carel van Mander, placed it “near Breda in the village of
Brueghel,”11 and such a village does exist — but, when he wrote “Breda,” it is also
possible that van Mander was referring to a different city, called Brée, whose name might
have been Latinized as Breda at the time, and which lies near a town called Brogel.12 In
fact, it is even possible that Bruegel came from neither town but actually from the city of
Breda itself; van Mander may have drawn his conclusions based on the artist’s name, and
5
Wolfgang Stechow, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (London, 1970), p. 96
Ibid., p. 98
7
"Gregorian calendar." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. 2000.
8
Robert L. Delevoy, Bruegel: historical and critical study. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. (Geneva, 1959), p.
102
9
Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel (Paris, 1997), p. 12
10
F. Grossman, Bruegel, the Paintings (London, 1955), p. 7
11
Carel van Mander, Dutch and Flemish painters. [Translation from the Schilderboeck and introd. by
Constant van de Wall] (New York, 1969), p. 153
12
Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel (Paris, 1997), p. 12
6
the epithet of “Peasant Bruegel” — a description likely based on Bruegel’s work, and not
necessarily implying a rural origin. This argument is supported by the spelling of his
name in the guild of St. Luke register as “Peeter Brueghels,” with the trailing “S”
implying a family name rather than a place of origin.13 The uncertainty of Bruegel’s
extraction raises questions about his motivations for portraying country life so fondly; are
these nostalgic portrayals of a childhood home, or merely an adult appreciation for the
bucolic?
Van Mander continues with an account of Bruegel’s education. He “learned art
under Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter he later married… after this, he went to
work for Jeroon Kock (Hieronymus Cock,) and after that traveled in France and Italy. He
studied the style of Jeroon van den Bosch (Hieronymus Bosch) well.”14 This nicely sums
up what we know of Bruegel’s education and early work, save for the side-panels of a
triptych altarpiece which he painted in 1551 and 1552 to accompany Peeter Baltens’
central panel15. Some of Bruegel’s later paintings may, in fact, have been derived from
compositions invented by Baltens.16 Hieronymus Cock — Bruegel’s second teacher
according to van Mander — was a skilled engraver, and eventually established the
printing firm that would publish many of Bruegel’s works. Cock’s father was known as a
follower of Bosch and his uncle was known as a landscape painter. Cock printed such
images alongside Bruegel’s, and must have played a role in introducing those aspects to
Bruegel’s work during their years working together.17
13
F. Grossman, Bruegel, the Paintings (London, 1955), p. 10-11 (see photocopy A)
Carel van Mander, Dutch and Flemish painters. [Translation from the Schilderboeck and introd. by
Constant van de Wall] (New York, 1969), p. 153
15
Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel (Paris, 1997), p. 13 (see photocopy B)
16
Ibid., p. 239, 303, 310
17
Ibid., p. 13 (see photocopy B), 14
14
In 1552, Bruegel journeyed to Italy as was popular among Netherlandish artists of
the time. Although much of his trip was spent in Rome, he traveled more widely than
typical for an artist abroad, visiting areas to the north of Italy and focusing his work more
often on the region’s exotic landscapes than on its art and culture. Drawings from this
journey clearly provided the source material for the distinctly Alpine landscapes used in
Hunters in the Snow, as well as many of Bruegel’s later works. By 1555, Bruegel had
returned to Antwerp and begun publishing his series of twelve Great Landscapes through
Hieronymus Cock.18 These marked the beginning of a period in which Bruegel produced
many paintings and engravings, including the majority of his most famous work. Even in
his genre paintings he tended to emphasize the landscape and the contemporary country
life, and often used allegory — usually in imitation of the humorously grotesque and
cluttered visual style of Hieronymus Bosch (see Flemish Proverbs, reproduced in our
textbook.) Beginning toward the end of the 1550s, however, Bruegel’s style began to
mature — becoming less fascinated with the Boschian and the fantastic, and more diverse
and sophisticated in theme. In 1563, he married Mayken Coecke, the daughter of his old
teacher, and they moved to Brussels. Around the time Bruegel was presumably
beginning this series on the seasons, Mayken gave birth to Pieter Bruegel the Younger.
The couple would later produce two more children — Jan and Marie — before Bruegel’s
death in 1569. Here, in the form of memorial poems and eulogies, we have the most
direct evidence of some of Bruegel’s contemporaries’ view of him. Besides his skill, he
was remembered for his continuation of Bosch’s legacy, and for the subtlety and sense of
humor found in his work.19
18
19
Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel (Paris, 1997)., p. 16
Ibid., p. 20-21
Works Cited:
Charles D. Cuttler, Northern painting from Pucelle to Bruegel: fourteenth, fifteenth, and
sixteenth centuries (New York, 1968)
Robert L. Delevoy, Bruegel: historical and critical study. Translated by Stuart Gilbert.
F. Grossman, Bruegel, the Paintings (London, 1955)
Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel (Paris, 1997)
Wolfgang Stechow, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (London, 1970)
Carel van Mander, Dutch and Flemish painters. [Translation from the Schilderboeck and
introd. by Constant van de Wall] (New York, 1969)
"Gregorian calendar." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed.
2000.
Photocopy A: Source cited in footnote 13
F. Grossman, Bruegel, the Paintings (London, 1955), p. 10
Photocopy A (continued): Source cited in footnote 13
F. Grossman, Bruegel, the Paintings (London, 1955), p. 11
Photocopy B: Source cited in footnotes 15 and 17
Philippe and Françoise Roberts-Jones, Pieter Bruegel (Paris, 1997), p. 13