Elck in Dutch means ‘each’ or ‘everyone’ and the scenes in this drawing illustrate proverbs or sayings. The central proverb concerns Elck who vainly seeks himself in the objects of this world as he stands over a broken globe. With a lantern he searches through a pile of barrels and bales, a game board, cards and objects which signify the distractions of life. To the right, two more Elck figuren play tug af war with a roper illustrating the saying, ‘each tugs for the Iongest end’. In the background on a mail hangs a picture which continues the moral theme_ It shows a fool sitting among a pile of broken household objects gazing at himself in a mirror.
He is Nemo or Nobody, as the inscription below him inforrns us: ‘Nobody knows hirnself”.
This is one of many moral drawings (and paintings) by Pieter Bruegel. Here, he condemns the selfish pursuit of worldly goods but he allso shows, through the picture of the fool, a way af conquering this vice. Only through self-knowledge can Elck free himself from the world’s vanities.
Discerning an understanding between Non-Virtues and Virtues is needed in our times. And the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder can help us to find an answer.
Five hundred years ago, there were a number of artists in The Netherlands who saw the beauty in daily life. And more than that: these artists were so talented that their depictions of the commonplace succeeded in making others receptive to it. There and then, in the 53 years between the death of Hieronymus Bosch (1516) and that of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1569) lies the origins of our unquenchable interest for ourselves, the devious and the other. Read more here
To See Yourself within It: Bruegel’s Festival of Fools
The topics of blindness and self-awareness for our time. Read more here
- Bruegel : Discerning Wisdom from Folly
Discerning an understanding between Non-Virtues and Virtues is needed in our times. And the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder can help us to find an answer.
Five hundred years ago, there were a number of artists in The Netherlands who saw the beauty in daily life. And more than that: these artists were so talented that their depictions of the commonplace succeeded in making others receptive to it. There and then, in the 53 years between the death of Hieronymus Bosch (1516) and that of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1569) lies the origins of our unquenchable interest for ourselves, the devious and the other.
Read more here: Bruegel : Discerning Wisdom from Folly
One of the most haunting of Bruegel’s images, Big Fish Eat Little Fish is among the first of the artist’s many treatments of proverbs in paintings or prints. The image reveals many small and large fish tumbling out of the mouth of an enormous beached fish. A small, helmeted figure with an oversized knife slices open the big fish’s belly, revealing even more marine creatures. Land, air, and water seem to be overrun by an odd assortment of real and fantastic fish, while in the foreground a man, accompanied by his son, gestures toward the scene. The meaning of his gesture is conveyed in the Flemish inscription below, which translates: “Look son, I have long known that the big fish eat the small.” This vernacular form of the ancient Latin proverb, which appears in majuscule lettering just above, relates to the theme of a senseless world in which the powerful instinctively and consistently prey on the weak. That the son understands the lesson is apparent from his gesture toward the other man in the boat, who has extracted a small fish from a larger one. Bruegel’s brilliant visualization of the proverb was first conceived as a drawing (Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina) that is signed by the artist and dated 1556. This engraving by Pieter van der Heyden, however, is signed in the lower left corner with the name Hieronymus Bosch, who had died in 1516. The print’s publisher, Hieronymus Cock, was probably responsible for replacing Bruegel’s name with that of the more famous and salable Bosch, who had, not coincidentally, a major influence on Bruegel.
The unprecedented, and somewhat enigmatic, iconography of this image derives from the fertile imagination of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who executed the original drawing after which this was engraved. Strongboxes, piggy banks, money bags, barrels of coins, and treasure chests—most of them heavily armed with swords, knives, and lances—attack each other in a ferocious display of chaotic, all-out warfare. The Dutch verses inscribed in the lower margin inform us that “It’s all for money and goods, this fighting and quarreling.” According to the Latin portion of the inscription, the banner with the “savage grappling hook” in the right background exemplifies greed, the vice at the root of all this trouble. The image seems to suggest that humanity’s lust for money is responsible for armed conflict. The concerns for the dangers of acquisitiveness and avarice expressed here had deep resonance in Antwerp, the bustling mercantile capital of Northern Europe where Bruegel was active for most of his career. Though inscribed “P. Bruegel” in the lower right corner, the engraving was probably not published until several years after the artist’s death in 1569. The accompanying inscription “Aux quatre Vents,” referring to the house At the Four Winds, through which many of Bruegel’s images were published, is found only on prints issued after 1570.
500 years later we see the same greed and folly or even worse:
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has made payments for over 1.3 billion dollars via his bank accounts at ING Amsterdam. Deutsche Bank’s anti-money laundering department reported these payments as suspicious. In 2016, Abramovich sent almost a fifth of his then estimated assets from Cyprus to the British Virgin Islands via ING using round-trip payments…see : Abramovich made 1.3 billion in suspicious transactions through ING-Amsterdam
The Spiritual Message of Bruegel for our Times:
- The Way of Self-Knowledge
A basic tenet of the Perennial Philosophy is that the world – the cosmos – has its counterpart in man. Man is the miniature of the universe; man is the microcosm: ‘As above, so below’,( Hermes Trismegistus, The Emerald Tablets) ‘in earth as it is in heaven’. (Matt. vi, 10)
But Man, according to traditional ideas, is excluded from his proper place in the cosmic scheme because of what allegory calls ‘Adam’s sin’ which condemns him to lead a false life, a life away from his rightful inheritance.
This is the central difficulty of the human condition, a riddle that calls man to awaken to the reality of his situation and become a seeker of truth.
If he hears this call he will learn that he must undergo an inner transition or transformation and that this has to take place before he can once again participate in real life. Read more here
News media frame all news items by emphasizing specific values, facts, and other considerations, and endowing them with greater apparent applicability for making related judgments. News media promotes particular definitions, interpretations, evaluations and recommendations. As to present Bruegel only as a Family business, and not to speak about his engagement on social and spiritual matters still of actual importance for our times:
“For many years, those who wanted to admire the world-famous works of the Brueghel family of painters had no choice but to travel to the world’s greatest museums in Paris, Berlin, Milan, and Boston. Now, for the first time in history, the Het Noordbrabants Museum is bringing together the best of five generations of Brueghel in a unique, ambitious, and game-changing collection of eighty paintings and prints – all under one roof. It’s a family reunion in ‘s-Hertogenbosch!“
Brueghel’s secret to success
“Enterprising, innovative, and world-famous, the Brueghels are the apex family in Western art history. The Brueghels produced paintings that are admired for their humorous compositions, universal messages, and exceptional skill. The subjects range from wedding celebrations, famous proverbs, and Biblical stories to awe-inspiring landscapes and studies of animals, insects, and flowers.“
“From generation to generation, the family business remained an international success. In the exhibition you get a look behind the scenes at three creative family businesses. The questions we cannot ask the Brueghels anymore, we ask them. Because what is it like to live and work together as a family?“…. It shall not help to disguise the truth….
- Crisis of Modern man
- Our civilization is in decay. And we know it…. Because we have blown-up our ego. Cosmic Balance has been disturbed. The painting “Dulle Griet”of the great painter Bruegel express very clearly the Crisis of Modern man: Modern Man with all his “economical grow- energy” and scientifical research based on his rebellion against his Soul, is landed in an apocalyptic “theather” prophesying the complete destruction of the world.
Dulle Griet is the model of modern man’s Rebellion against his soul and Anger against it. How can Dulle Griet find a way to calm her anger?
She can looks in the mirror and see herself,making more “selfies”, so seeing more anger as the portait of vanity of Hans Memling shows us. The lady see only more vanity The message of Memling is in his Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation focuses on the idea of “Memento mori,” a Latin phrase that translates to “Remember your mortality.” Memling’s triptych shockingly contrasts the beauty, luxury and vanity of the mortal earth with images of death and hell. In the time of Breughel and in our times the message is that Vanity is not the solution. see: Nothing Good without Pain: Hans Memling”s earthly Vanity and Divine Salation
Don’t change the world in hopes of changing yourself,
change yourself so the world changes because of you.
For more info see: The Spiritual Land of Peace of the “Holy Refugees” and
Forum for Ethics, Virtues and Uprightness.
Path to the Maypole of Wisdom 
