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Demons in Our Midst
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 Gula (detail)
1558
Gula means immoderation or gluttony and is numbered among the Seven Deadly Sins,
which Bruegel portrayed in seven sheets full of fantastic figures and terrifying
visions.
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Bruegel's century saw the exploration of the Earth's
surface, a fresh survey of the heavens, the examination of
the human body, and the cataloguing of the animal and plant
worlds. People's interest was focused upon what we today
would call reality. At that time, however, many will have
regarded as real, as existing, not only trees and animals,
the liver and the spleen, but also demons. Scientific
studies were unable to dispel handed-down popular belief.
Many celestial phenomena, physical deformities, diseases and
epidemics were as yet inexplicable, and were accordingly put
down to the influence of devils and demons, together with
their human accomplices. The latter alone, the witches and
sorcerers, could be caught and punished. Thousands
supposedly in league with the forces of evil - in particular
women -were tortured, found guilty, and burnt at the stake.
Confessional reports and biographies reflect the great
extent to which devils and demons were experienced as part
of everyday reality. In the visual arts, they are given
striking expression in the work of Hieronymus Bosch,
likewise a Netherlander. Bruegel used his own fantasy to
develop the tradition established by Bosch. He drew models
for the prints of The Seven Deadly Sins (1558, detail
p. 39) under commission from his publisher, Cock. Bruegel
produced disturbing, unnatural landscapes filled with
magical beings, in part playfully fantastical, in part
genuinely threatening. It was presumably this mixture
between the two elements, perhaps the thrill of fear, that
was so sought after at the time.
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 The Seven Deadly Sins, or The Vices:
Desidia (Sloth)
1557
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Avaritia (Greed)
1558
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The playful element is given less prominence in the
artist's paintings, which are more serious in nature.
Bruegel has depicted the origin of the demons in The Fall
of the Rebel Angels (1562), in which the Archangel
Michael, together with his followers, is driving the angels
who have rebelled against God out of Heaven. Falling to
Hell, they are transformed into devils and demons. The
proximity of God is indicated at the top edge by a brightly
lit semicircle; furthermore, the upper - more heavenly -
part of the picture is more clearly arranged and less
congested than the lower one, approaching hell, in which the
figures are chaotically falling past each other. A
comparison of the angels and the devilish figures reveals
that the former are clothed in lavishly swirling garments,
leaving only their heads and hands visible. In contrast,
most of the "evil ones" are naked, opening wide their mouths
or tearing open their own bodies and - in some cases -
presenting their buttocks to the observer's gaze. Bruegel
has painted them merely as bodies, demonstrating the
distance that lies between them and the spiritual beings,
the angels.
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The Fall of the Rebel Angels
1562
The Archangel Michael, portrayed in golden-brown armour in
the middle of the picture, is driving the angels who have
rebelled against God out of Heaven. The angels in white
garments are fighting on his side, while those who have
broken away from God are metamorphosing into the mostly
naked bodies of fantastic figures.
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The Fall of the Rebel Angels (detail)
1562
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Pieter van der Heyden
after Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Battle about Money
after 1570
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