Art His 40B Final 4

Anonymous, Human Sacrifice, Women in Indigenous Dress, Quetzalcoatl, Codex Vaticanus A, 16th c., post-conquest Mexico Week: 10.2/10.3

("Other" European Art) Human Sacrifice -But the book also adds images that are not part of the original. The book is meant to serve the taste of collectors so it focuses on what would have been seen as strange and fascinating customs of the indigenous peoples, such as sacrifices and bloodletting rituals. Interest in these elements reflected both a horror at "barbarian" practices and a desire to set this strangeness into a Christian framework. The annotator surmises that the Aztecs are descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel, but then says that Aztec priests reveal the depths of depravity to which this lost tribe has sunk. According to the annotator, we can see this reflected in dirty and dark complexions of the Aztec--attributing their darker skin to their sins. In contrast, European priests who worship the "true god" are without stain or filth and are thus whiter than milk. We are seeing here the construction of an elaborate and devastating myth of European superiority that annexes moral worth to skin color Women in Indigenous Dress -(Look at the last Weekly Reading) Quetzalcoatl -But the annotator wavers again, drawn to what he sees as fortuitous comparisons to Christianity, but also to the interesting details of what is actually a quite alien religion. He explains that this is a god, gives his name (Quetzalcoatl), lists his items (thorn and incense burner), his temples (house of communal fasting, house of fear, prison of sadness). Then the text goes on to draw correlations to Christian practices "the Quetzalcoatl ... seeing that the sins and sufferings of the world were not ceasing, they say was the first to begin to invoke the gods and to make sacrifices to them. Thus also he was the first to do penance in order to appease the gods in order that his people might be pardoned. they say that he sacrificed himself, drawing his own blood with thorns and other forms of penance." Quetzalcoatl is here imagined as a Christ-like figure. Codex Vaticanus A -(look at the last Weekly Reading)

Hans Memling, Adoration of the Magi, 15th c., oil on panel, Flanders Week: 10.1/10.2

Adoration of the Magi ("Other" European Art) -The dual nature of this fascination with Black Africans has a long history in the depiction of one singular Christian subject: the Adoration of the Magi. The story of the Magi, which coalesced in the fifth century after Christ's death, focused on the idea that Christ represented a universal God accepted by the whole known world. The Magi embodied the idea of conversion in foreign lands (they represented Europe, Asia and Africa) and therefore were one justification for colonization and Christian conversion. Representing Melchior, the youngest Magi as a Black African emerged as a pictorial motif in the early 15th c. In the Memling, the Black Magi is set apart, both in terms of dress and ornament—he is depicted with an earring, marking him as exotic and foreign in a way that the two other white Magi are not. He stands outside the crèche where the Virgin, physically and socially separated from the two white Magi who are depicted contained inside the circle marked by the Virgin and child. His distinguishing features, blackness, kinky hair, specific physiognomic facial features, telegraphed foreignness to a European audience. While many medieval images vilified black-skinned figures, the Magi images seem to be doing something else. The idea that Africans were spiritually closer to the ideal of Adam, less worldly and inhibited and more childlike, made the idea of conversion seem more powerful. In addition, the darkness of the Magi is contrasted with the image or idea of revelation coming in the form of light. The darker the receptor, the brighter the light of conversion. Africa was also associated with the cult/fantasy of Prester John, a story that first came to light in the 13th c. during the crusades. He was described as a powerful Christian priest-king of black African ancestry, who, ruling vast lands to the east of Europe, might be brought into Christendom's struggle against Islam. The third Magi was often intended to call up this association with Prester John. (Read more of 10.1/10.2)

Pieter Aertsen, Butcher's Stall, 16th c., oil on panel, Netherlands Week: 9.1/9.2

Butcher's Stall (Protestant Reformation?) -One of the most important genres to emerge in Dutch painting was the still life—this was an arrangement of objects that overwhelmed the depiction of another subject, or was removed from narrative altogether. A still life could depict flowers, or meals that were half finished, or in this case, a market stall selling meat. As with Flemish painting of the 1400s, attention is paid to textures, reflections on surfaces such as metal or glass, and to the individualized features of different objects, but now without the overt religious iconography. This painting by Pieter Aertsen, who worked in Antwerp, focuses on a seemingly mundane scene--a butcher's stall in the market. The painting lovingly details the various kinds of meat sold in the stall--the calves and pig heads, sausages, ham, pigs trotters, chickens, larges sheets of white lard, and meat pies. -But what seems mundane also conceals moralizing content that dovetails with Protestant ethics. The image of meat calls up allusions to gluttony and pleasure—this overabundance of food seems to point to the outsized and uninhibited appetites that crave it. The very realism of the depiction of meat underscores its excess—it seems like you can reach out and touch it, or you can smell the odor of slightly decaying flesh, or the waft of herbs used in the sausages. In addition, the work is what is called an inverted picture—the main event seems to be the market stall, but in fact, in the back there are tiny, distant scenes that seem to tell another story. -On the left is the Holy family escaping to Egypt, and the Virgin offers alms to people who are standing in line for church. To the right several men and women carouse in a tavern. This might be a reference to the "prodigal son", a parable told by Christ. In the parable, a man gives an inheritance to his younger son, who the spends it all on gambling and women. When he returns home, penniless and repentant, his father forgives him (the story warns about the sins of profligacy, while espousing the virtue of forgiveness). The theme became very popular in Northern painting after the Protestant Reformation because it depicts the teaching of Christ without depicting him. The painting has other moral lessons. We see a butcher's boy emptying a bucket while surrounded by discarded oyster shells that signify gluttony. Other signs promise redemption. For instance, the crossed fishes on the plate allude to the fish consumed at Lent, and the pretzels and flagon of wine hanging in the rafters, refer to the Eucharist and Lent. We might call this approach a vanitas--it reminds the us of the vanity of life, the futility of human pretensions and desires, and the necessity of salvation in the face of death. We are shown that food and appetite is fleeting, while the spiritual food offered by Christ is permanent.

Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition, 15th c., oil on panel, Flanders Week: 8.2/8.3

Deposition -The third painter of note who contributed to what made Flemish painting unique was Rogier van der Weyden. He came from the southeast and settled in Tournai (Brussels), establishing a large workshop there that catered to a wealthy middle class. Rather than being a court painter he was member of a guild. He apprenticed to the painter Robert Campin, who was the head of the painters guild in Tournai. Campin elevated van der Weyden to Master when he himself was arrested for public indecency and lost credibility and felt compelled to turn over his studio to other hands. -In the years following, Rogier van der Weyden became one of the most important painters of devotional works. This work, the Deposition, was one of the most famous and influential paintings in all early Netherlandish art. It was a central panel from a larger diptych commissioned by the guild of cross bowmen for the Church of Notre Dame hor- les-murs. The work is quite different from Jan van Eyck's in that it has none of the telescopic/microscopic effects, nor the great depth and space. Instead, the figures are crowded into a very shallow space, pushed out toward the viewer in a flat, frontal plane that is exacerbated by the shallow niche—like setting and the gold background. -Instead of concentrating on the texture, light, space and form of individual objects, van der Weyden exploits the high intensity and emotional impact of the moment when Christ's body is lowered from the cross. The figures closest to us show the stresses of emotional turmoil and compassion. Real tears are seen streaming down the Virgin's face in an open display of grief. There is no complex theology here, as there is in the Ghent altarpiece, but instead a focus on devotional compassion and imitative empathy. We are given access to this compassion through the Virgin Mary, who is collapsed in an S-curve that pre-figures the form Christ's body will take when she holds him on her lap in the pieta. The suffering of Mary had become an important theme from the 13th century on, when the cult of the Virgin began to grow in Europe. Albertus Magnus for example wrote that Mary felt in her heart the same wounds that Christ suffered in his body. Karel van Mander who wrote a Book of Painters in 1604 that was a compilation of biographies of Netherlandish artists, says of van der Weyden: "he improved our art of painting greatly, through his works, by depicting the inner desires and emotions of his subjects whether sorrow, anger or gladness were exhibited."

Franz Hogenberg, Dutch Calvinist Iconoclasm, 16th c., engraving, Germany Week: 9.1

Dutch Calvinist Iconoclasm (Protestant Reformation) -One other very important part of Luther's denunciations of the church involved what he saw as the idolatrous nature of the mass and the worship of saints. Although Luther himself was not necessarily an iconoclast, his ideas led to hostility to images among growing Protestant sects. In the 16th c. there were periodic iconoclasms, in which images deemed idolatrous were stripped from churches. The woodcut image from the 1563 edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs shows the situation in England, long after Henry VIII broke with the Roman church and formed the Church of England (Anglican church). It depicts an iconoclasm. In the top part of the image "papists" are packing away their "paltry," while the church is purged of idols. The bottom depicts clerics receiving the Bible from Queen Elizabeth I, and a communion table. The other print depicts the ideas of John Calvin, leader of another protestant sect. According to Calvin, images held no religious relevance. Worse, images could lead to idolatry, the worship of the picture rather than the thing that it represented. In 1566, spurred on by the sermons of Calvinist preachers, mobs descended on churches in the Netherlands, destroying their imagery.

Paolo Veronese, Feast in the House of Levi, 16th c., oil on canvas, Venice Week: 9.3

Feast in the House of Levi (also known as the Last Supper. It was renamed Feast in the House of Levi) (The Counter-Reformation: Censorship) -There are other instances in which the strong arm of the church was brought to bear on artists and their works. One very famous case occurred in Venice and concerned a painter named Veronese. Veronese painted this large scale work for the refectory of a Dominican monastery in Venice. It appears to depict Christ at a long table sharing dinner with assorted apostles, but placed in a Renaissance-style loggia (an architectural porch) and surrounded by a multitude of other figures. -Veronese's painting does not follow these clear conventions (of other Last Supper paintings). Veronese's paintings often seem to focus attention on pomp and circumstance. They depict objects and fabrics in close and rich detail, and are full of interesting but often extraneous bits of business. In addition to many visually exciting details, the narrative of the work is difficult to identify. For instance, where might we imagine the figure of Judas? The monks of the monastery accepted the final painting without comment, or were not apparently concerned with it. However, in 1573, Veronese's painting had attracted the unwelcome attention of the Inquisition and he was called to a tribunal in July of that year to answer questions about the painting. -Being called before the Inquisition was a very serious matter in the late 16th c. Pope Paul III established a system of tribunals, ruled by the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition", and staffed by cardinals and other Church officials. Later known as the Roman Inquisition. The Inquisition was intended to eradicate heresy as part of the Counter Reformation. The Inquisition enforced the Index of Forbidden Books, which informed all Catholics of works which were heretical and thus forbidden to read. These included works of poetry, literature and science, and not just theology. For instance, Galileo's works made it onto this list in the early 17th century. In the case of Veronese's painting, however, it wasn't the abbot of the order who was called before the Inquisition, but the painter himself. This was an extraordinary step in that it revealed the extent to which the church wanted to control the production of images, starting with artists themselves. The details of the trial are known because they have been preserved in the Venetian archives. They are interesting precisely because they reveal both what the artist considered important to the painting and what the church viewed as dangerous or anti-doctrinal. -The elements of the painting that disturbed the Inquisition tribunal were not the grand and imposing, contemporary palace setting with its triple Renaissance loggia. Rather, it was the details of the work that proved most unnerving and offensive. The judges did not like: 1)the fact that Veronese included a man with a blood stained handkerchief, or another man picking his teeth 2) the fact that he included a dwarf and a dog in the frontal plane of the picture -In the transcripts of the trial, the judges express suspicion of the "buffoons, drunkards, Germans, dwarfs and similar vulgarities" which they considered inappropriate for the depiction of the Last Supper. The judges suggest that in the place of the dog, Veronese might put a figure of the Magdalen which would be more appropriate to the scene. But the judges express most concern about the figures they refer to as "Germans" who appear in the lower right hand corner eating and drinking. (Look at last slide of 9.3!!!!)

Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, triptych, 16th c., oil on panel, Flanders Week: 8.3

Garden of Earthly Delights (Flemish Art) -If Campin, Van Eyck and Van der Weyden represent the foundation of Netherlandish Renaissance painting, creating a visual vocabulary that stakes out very different territory than the Italians, they still produce subjects that are recognizable: religious altarpieces with familiar narratives and figures, portraits, etc. But another highly influential figure produced works that were unlike any others both in form and subject matter. This was the painter Hieronymous Bosch, named after the town of 's- Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc) in northern Brabant, where he lived and worked throughout his life. He was a devout Catholic, a member of a lay brotherhood or confraternity devoted to religious observance. His painting has almost nothing in common with that of either Jan van Eyck or Roger van der Weyden, except for the attention to minute detail. Bosch's works are imbued with a sense of the grotesque, the fantastical--they neither call up a world of familiar domestic surroundings like van Eyck, nor do they draw on the viewer's empathy like those of van der Weyden. -Bosch has been characterized as a: bitter social polemicist, a heretic who dealt with witchcraft, alchemy and astrology, a punster on words and folklore, a provincial madman and fanatic, and a highly intellectual painter of puzzling and erudite pictures for learned, secular patrons. One of his most famous works is a triptych referred to as the Garden of Earthly Delights. The identity of its original patron/owner is subject to dispute although it seems likely it was made for someone aristocratic because of the erudite references throughout. It is definitely a private work, not intended for public consumption. It seems to modern eyes to be among the most scandalous and possibly heretical of paintings produced in the 16th c. However, it is now in the Prado because Bosch's works were avidly collected by Philip II of Spain, the most Catholic of all absolute monarchs in the 16th c. More info in Week 8.3

Jan van Eyck, Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, 15th c., oil on panel, Flanders Week: 8.2

Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife While the Ghent Altarpiece represents the most extensive expression of religious themes in Flemish art in the early 15th century, another form of art emerged during this period that is tied even more closely to the burgher class. Portraits become a vital genre in the North as a way of communicating status, identity and other important details of lived life. These are secular in content, although often they incorporate religious allusions. One example is this portrait by Jan van Eyck of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, Giovanna Cenami. Arnolfini was an Italian merchant/banker from Lucca who lived and worked as an agent of the Medici family in the town of Bruges. Like the Merode altarpiece, every detail in this work appears to carry a specific meaning and creates a complex iconography. And, in fact, what becomes apparent is that the painting is more than just a portrait. It is intended to be documentary, to record details that are meaningful when juxtaposed. Together they say something about not simply the relationship between the couple, but about their lives outside the picture. The couple is joined in the center of the picture, holding hands, and Giovanni raises his other hand in what appears to be a significant gesture. There are discarded clogs at the bottom of the picture, a finely rendered lap dog, and in the back there is a detailed rendering of a chandelier with one candle and convex mirror on the wall with writing above it. Taken together these objects all seem to point to some larger meaning. The whisk broom is a sign of domesticity, and the finial on the bedpost depicts St. Margaret, the patron saint of childbirth. The discarded clogs in the foreground indicate that this is sacrosanct ground of matrimony but also the distinct realms of men vs women. The oranges on the windowsill may refer to fertility. The dog in the front is an emblem of Fido (fidelity), a conventional sign of marital fidelity. Because it depicts the couple in a bedroom, it would seem that the picture is intended to depict the marriage. And in fact, in the mirror we see the two figures, plus two more reflected, and above the mirror is the inscription: "Jan van Eyck was here." Erwin Panofsky suggested decades ago that this painting was intended to document the performance of a marriage and the mirror reflects Jan van Eyck's role as witness. Margaret Carroll, on the other hand, argues against this interpretation. Instead of a marriage, she believes that this work shows Arnolfini investing his wife with something like power of attorney for those times when he is gone. Giovanna is being is entrusted with the family business, and his trust in her is attested to by all of the various material things contained in this room. What is interesting here is the idea that the work of art serves as a contract or a document that authorizes the relationships between the people represented. This indicates a transition from the idea that the work of art simply records what is seen to the idea that the work of art becomes the physical demonstration of contract and authority. We also see here a statement about gender relations—the prescribed roles of husband and wife are such that he and only he can invest her with authority, because without his permission, she cannot act because her identity and sex prevent her from doing so.

Johannes Cocklaus, Luther with Seven Heads, 16th c., engraving, Germany Week: 9.1

Luther with Seven Heads (Protestant Reformation) -The use of prints and broadsides was not one-sided, however. A number of prints circulated from Catholic centers depicting Luther as the anti-Christ for instance. Around 1530 a Lutheran caricature circulated that represented the papacy as having "seven heads" consisting of the pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests; the sign on the cross in the image read "for money, a sack full of indulgences"; and a devil is seen emerging from an indulgence chest below. Here we have an anti-Reformation pamphlet that is a response to the Lutheran's caricature. It depicts Luther with seven heads. The number seven points not only to the seven deadly sins, but to the beast in the Revelation of St. John the Divine 13,1 with its seven heads and their "blasphemous names." These heads show Luther among others to be a hypocrite, a fanatic, and "Barabbas"—the thief who should have been crucified instead of Christ.

Jan van Eyck, Madonna and Chancellor Rolin, 15th c. oil on panel, Flanders Week: 8.2

Madonna and Chancellor Rolin -Southern Renaissance Art = focus is on man as the microcosm that represents the macrocosm that is God Northern Renaissance Art = focus is on the way God is revealed in the mundane experiences of everyday life. This is related to a late medieval philosophy associated with the 14th c. English Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. Called nominalism, it is a religious philosophy that maintains that the universe can only be understood through direct experience rather than through speculations about the ideal or abstract nature of things. The long standing influence of this philosophy in Northern Europe might account for why Flemish art evinces such interest in describing the explicit visual characteristics of fabric, glass, flowers, landscape, etc. In the north, painters seem intent on impressing viewers with the reality and truth of the scenes they were representing by conveying them with the most detailed visual descriptions possible. Campin was a proponent of telling religious stories in contemporary settings. This mirrors another important devotional current that was fashionable in the Flanders and was based on popular devotional literature that exhorted the devout to draw parallels between daily life and religious stories. Such an approach to detail can be seen here in the Madonna and Chancellor Rolin. Nicolas Rolin came from a modest family background in the French town of Autun. He was a lawyer who was subsequently appointed to the position of chancellor in 1422. He commissioned this altarpiece originally for private use but then gave it to the cathedral at Autun when his son became a Bishop there. The artist Jan Van Eyck depicts the chancellor kneeling before the Virgin and Child dressed ostentatiously in gold brocade and furs like a prince, betraying his desire to be seen as a high-ranking court dignitary. The Virgin is seated on a marble throne wearing a full,embroidered cloak adorned with precious stones. The entire picture is composed as a "holy conversation" (a scene that brings saints and donor together). This work reveals an approach to painting that spans the width between a kind of microscopic view, i.e. an attention to the minutest details from up very close (the rug, the hair, fabric) and a telescopic view, i.e. an attention to describing in detail even those things that are farthest away (the tiny city in the landscape out the window, which seems to be a contemporary Flemish city, but may also be intended to refer to the New Jerusalem).

Agnolo Bronzino, Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, 16th c., fresco, Florence Week: 9.2

Martyrdom of St. Lawrence -The Counter-Reformation What kind of art would the Church have viewed as inappropriate after the Council of Trent? Martyrdoms of saints were understood by the Trent Council as particularly important kinds of religious works, because they could inspire piety, devotion and empathy in the viewer, without verging into the sin of idolatry. This work by Bronzino, however, shows a number of nudes in contorted and varied poses, displaying the artist's technical mastery. It also quotes Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling—St. Lawrence is in the pose of Adam, and the nude at the bottom right is a pagan embodiment of the River Tiber and also an intentional homage to a fragment of ancient Greek sculpture, the Torso Belvedere, beloved by Michelangelo for its articulation of male musculature. This concentration on nudes in a variety of poses, twisting and turning even if the subject itself does not call for it, often based on direct quotes from Michelangelo, and comprising complex compositions filled with figures that are extraneous to the narrative, this is a style referred to as Mannerism. The Council of Trent, in its directives about art, seems to respond to this kind of art and intends to steer the church away from these types of representations, sticking to the literal subject matter of the bible, and removing nudes and other figures that might prove a distraction to pious reflection.

Quentin Massys, Money Changer and his Wife, 16th c., oil on panel, Flanders Week: 9.1

Money Changer and his Wife (Protestant Reformation?) -In 16th c. Flanders, in the wake of iconoclastic suspicion of images, a moralistic form of painting emerged that passed judgment on certain kinds of activity. This work is not a portrait, but depicts moneychangers in a typical burgher's home, filled with objects that convey their material comfort, but the tone is disapproving. The wife has a bible, but seems much more interested in the gold counted by her husband: i.e., more focused on material goods than spiritual rewards. In the back, two men engage in the sin of idle gossip. In the tiny convex mirror the reflection shows the obverse —a man is actually reading a bible or psalter. An inscription on the original frame read: "Let the balance be just and the weights equal." -This is a genre painting: genres ( the word means "type) depict subjects that may have a moral subtext, but are not explicitly religious. They may depict tavern scenes, or landscapes, or still life arrangements, and in this, they are "types" or genres of painting that are sold on the open market to the burgher class.

Robert Campin, Mérode Altarpiece/Annunciation triptych, 15th c., oil on panel, Week: 8.2/8.3

Mérode Altarpiece/Annunciation (The Renaissance in Northern Europe: Flemish Art) -One way in which these detailed descriptions of daily life were achieved in painting was through the development of oil painting: oil is more versatile than tempera (an egg based pigment commonly used in 15th c. Italy that produces hard, clean outlines and bright colors) and allows for far greater detail and precision as well as color saturation. Domestic altarpieces like this one by Robert Campin, give us a sense of the tastes and needs of the burgher class. A typical work of art that was sought by this class of patrons was a small, private devotional altarpiece created for the home. The Merode triptych represents an approach that was common in 15th century Flanders. Biblical events are portrayed in familiar domestic surroundings--it is as if to say that the patrons of these works were recipients of religious mysteries in their own homes. The paintings characterize religious scenes in terms of the familiar and the every day. In this case, the scene depicted is the Annunciation in which the Virgin Mary receives notice from the Angel Gabriel that she will bear the son of God. Look more into the slides of 8.2 (contain more info) Ex: Northern Vs Southern Art

Peter Breughel the Elder, The Blind Leading the Blind, 16th c., oil on panel, Netherlands Week: 9.1/9.2

The Blind Leading the Blind (Protestant Reformation) -While Brueghel often depicted proverbs which had a secular origin, he also produced similar paintings that were nevertheless based more specifically in religious traditions. For instance, he often illustrated the proverbs of Christ. These were convenient ways of conveying religious and moral points, without invoking the more dangerous charge of idolatry by depicting Christian subjects. This work, The Blind leading the Blind, refers to Christ's parable concerning the Pharisees (Matthew 15:14): "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." In this parable, Christ illustrates a spiritual condition: inner blindness to true religion. -Brueghel shows us a procession of six blind men who clutch each other, each passively following the equally blind man in front. The first man is shown falling into a pond, while behind him the second man realizes he is falling too. He is unable to see (his eyes are vacant), and yet his face registers terror as he faces an unknown danger. In contrast to this line of clumsy and foolish men, a church is the focal point of the distant landscape. In the form of masonry and architecture, the church stands for a secure, physical foundation that represents the strength of faith and its true vision. Through the narrative of the parable and the satirical edge that he gives to these kinds of pictures, Brueghel makes fun of human mistakes, while also promoting a certain notion of Christian morals.

Peter Breughel the Elder, The Land of Cockaigne, 16th c., oil on panel, Netherlands Week: 9.1/9.2

The Land of Cockaigne (Protestant Reformation) -After the Reformation, art produced in the Netherlands steers away from overt Christian subjects and moves toward genre paintings that depict parables and moralizing narratives that emphasize Christian ethics over depictions of Christ and the Virgin, even in those places like the low countries that were mixed Protestant and Catholic. One of the most important painters of this new type of painting was the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bruegel lived and worked mainly in Antwerp, one of the largest cities in Europe in the 16th c. A cosmopolitan trading center and port, Antwerp had been part of the Duchy of Brabant during the first half of the century and then became part of the holdings of King Philip II, the Catholic monarch. But Protestantism in Antwerp was strong and in 1566 a wave of iconoclasm swept the city. Philip II suppressed Protestants with violence and this triggered a revolt leading to the 80 years war that eventually split the Dutch provinces into separate Catholic and Protestant parts. The works of Brueghel often reflect the religious tensions that existed in his homeland, although his religious affiliations or loyalties are not known. But his later works reflect an ironic view of human foibles, and they focus on genres that are typically secular, rather than overtly Christian. -One of his specialties was illustrating Flemish proverbs and satirical stories. Proverbs often depict men making silly or foolish choices, or behaving in unseemly and potentially dangerous and self-defeating ways. The Land of the Cockaigne is a place whose inhabitants are encouraged to be lazy and to give into all vices like gluttony and sloth. Those who don't give in are punished with death. Here the fences are sausages, the houses made of cake, and the poultry flies about already roasted and ready to eat. A clerk lies on his fur robe, ink and pen unused at his waist, book beside him; the peasant sleeps on his flail (weapon); and the soldier's lance and gauntlet lie useless beside him. Beneath the clerk and the peasant runs an egg, already half-eaten; empty eggshells in Brueghel and in Bosch are symbolic of spiritual sterility. Behind the sleepers a pig runs away with a knife conveniently stuck in it, ready for any taker. To its right a traveller has has eaten his way through a mountain of pudding right into Cockaigne and is swinging down with the aid of a tree. -Painted after the Revolt of 1566, many have interpreted this work as Brueghel's ironic and veiled allusion to the conflict between Protestants and Catholics. The three men represent the different orders involved in the conflict, military, peasant and merchant: while the fourth, the nobility, is depicted as a roasted duck. This seems to allude to the impotence of the nobility to either meet the needs of the lower classes, or take leadership of the situation. In the meantime, all participants are represented as giving into their baser instincts, preferring sin over virtue.