humanities

ON CANNIBALS ' AND THE PAINTINGS OF BRUEGHEL THE ELDER AS A REFLECTION OF REFORMATION SOCIETY

2007

Sixteenth-century Europe was a society in conflict , attempting to come to terms with radical changes from within and without . Internally , the central events were those surrounding the Protestant Reformation , which challenged the authority of a Church that had ruled with an iron grip for over a millennium . Externally , the discovery of the American continents had brought a major shock to European society not the fact that other lands existed , or even that they were inhabited

it was that the inhabitants were so utterly different in their ways and their culture . From a European perspective , the natives of North and South America had no real civilization , no laws , no religion and no societal hierarchy or obligations as a European would understand them (Brian 1999 . Michel de Montaigne , sometimes considered the Father of the Personal Essay ' was the offspring of a minor noble with unconvential ideas of upbringing ' and a Protestant woman of Sephardic ancestry Montaigne received an excellent education and was trained in the law (Norton , 1985 . There is little doubt that all of this contributed to his ideas and philosophy , which would today be considered very left wing

On Cannibals is an essay that idealizes , and even romanticizes the lives of indigenous Americans , comparing their lives and societies to those in Europe in a way that leaves a very unflattering image of the latter . Granted , his depictions of the savages ' from Antarctic France (Brazil , whom he met in 1560 , were frightening to say the least . According to Montaigne 's essay , the native Brazilians would .slash [their enemy] to death with swords ' after which they would roast and eat him together ' - a form of retribution rather than nourishment as (according to Montaigne ) it was among the ancient Scythians . Montaigne then goes on however to point out that such practices are less barbarous than those commonly practiced in Europe particularly by the Holy Inquisition , in which people were tortured alive . Montagine continually paints an idealized picture of indigenous Americans as living in a primeval state , closer to that of which Nature intended , writing that there is no commerce at all , no knowledge of letters , no knowledge of numbers , nor any judges , or political superiority , no habit of service , riches , or poverty , no contracts , no inheritance , no divisions of property , no occupations but easy ones , no respect for any relationship except ordinary family ones , no clothes , no agriculture , no metal , no use of wine or wheat

In some respects , his literary image of savages ' reflects the subject predominating in the later works of his contemporary , Flemish painter Pieter Brughel the Elder . Brughel 's technique of painting was simpler than the Italianate style then in vogue , rather in the way that Montaigne was plain-spoken and rather direct in his writings . Brughel was the first Western painter to depict landscapes for what they were rather than as part of religious allegories such as those of Hieronymus Bosch (whom he satirized . These landscapes were the background of unapologetic , vivid images that depicted the everyday lives of simple peasants and rural villagers , which was also unusual for the time . In fact , these images are one of the main sources available today about the life of common people of the time (Wikipedia , 2007

Like Montaigne , Brughel had a healthy contempt for the status quo clearly seeing the contradictions of Reformation society and not afraid to comment on them . Many of his paintings contain scathing satire of contemporary institutions , such as his pen-and-ink drawing The Ass In School , which depicts a scene that would be all-too-familiar to today 's classroom teachers in which the teacher is struggling to control a room full of out-of-control children , while the headmaster - appropriately depicted as a jackass - simply stands there and observes . Another drawing , Strongboxes Battling Piggy Banks , depicts anthropomorphized strongboxes , piggy banks , money bags , treasure chests and coin barrels armed with swords and lances , engaged in heated warfare . A verse engraved underneath says , It 's all about money and goods , this fighting and quarreling (Metropolitan Museum of Art , 2006

The metaphor of warfare and physical conflict appears in another work more significant in context of the Reformation period . This is The Fight Between Carnival and Lent . In the lower center of a chaotic street scene , a plump tradesman mounted on a barrel does battle using a skewer with meat on it against a shriveled old crone wielding a baker 's paddle According to an unnamed Wikipedia writer , this image was intended to satirize the conflicts of the Reformation . Given the dour nature of Calvinism , the vindictiveness of the Catholic hierarchy and the authoritarianism endemic to both , it is difficult to know who in this painting represents what , however . Given some of the contemporary views on the Reformation , it is unlikely Brughel was taking sides at all , but rather just weary of the endless infighting between the various competing sects over what in the end , was nothing more than money and power . In a letter dated 13 December 1567 , geographer Abraham Ortelius wrote to his cousin : We live in a very dised time .being threatened with .various illnesses , as the Catholic evil , the Gueux fever and the Huguenot dysentery for we are up to our heads in pride and ambition everyone wishes .to know much and to do little , to dominate others , but not to bow under God 's hand

It could be said that Brughel and Montaigne are both products of their time - in which old assumptions about the nature of life and the world were being questioned , with a shift away from a church-centered society to one in which the emphasis became more on the individual and man as the measure of all things ' Both express their disdain of competing institutions , claiming spiritual authority and a desire to save souls ' for Christ , yet in the end simply struggling for power and dominance

Given this , it should not be surprising that among the more sophisticated thinkers , artists and scholars of the time , the study of Man should reveal a multitude of imperfections and contradictions Neither Montaigne nor Brughel hesitated to reveal these in their works On the other hand , there is a shared idealism about rustic ' peoples as opposed to the nobility and aristocracy of the time . Before the Reformation , the depiction of the Common Man in any sort of art or literature was virtually unheard-of . Aboriginal peoples , seen through the ignorance and superstition of the Dark Ages and medieval times would have been considered devils . It may be possible that such hunter-gathering tribal peoples of ancient Europe surviving into the post-Roman period are the basis of legends regarding fairies , elves leprechauns and other little people (Murray , 1970

Even as Montaigne presents an idealized picture that anticipates Rousseau 's noble savage ' by two centuries , Brughel presents images of average , everyday people as they sow and reap , hunt and gather celebrate and mourn . How might his subject matter also reflect a change in the tastes and needs of art partrons of the Reformation ? Again , this goes back to the fact that prior to the Renaissance and the Reformation secularism was virtually absent from the arts . Visual , dramatic and musical works - with the exception of such works as the Bayeaux Tapestry (depicting the Norman Conquest of England ) and the songs of the troubadours and trouvires - were exclusively devoted to sacred subjects Humanists such as DaVinci and Michelangelo began to produce works of realism rather than religious idealism

Eventually , Western Europe began to divide into two halves along religious lines , which remain to the present day : the primarily Roman Catholic south (Austria , France , Spain , Portugal , Italy , and Croatia and the predominantly Protestant north (England , Netherlands , Germany and Scandinavia . Those in the north who embraced Protestant movements (with the exception of the Calvinists ) were not against art - they were simply against Catholic religious art , which was considered by some Protestant sects (specifically the Anabaptists ) to be in violation of the second commandment . Although Protestant artists may have occasionally painted scenes from the Bible , they still represented a Hellenistic kind of romantic realism as opposed to the classical ideals of Catholic artists (Nosotro , 2007

Protestantism was not only a reaction to Catholic theology and corruption within the Catholic Church hierarchy in many ways , it was rejection of the pomp and ceremony associated with Catholicism . Among many Protestants , plain , unadorned clothing and surroundings were considered proper (to this day , the highest compliment one can receive from the Amish is to be told s /he looks plain . For wealthy Protestants (those likely to patronize artists , a rejection of elaborate , idealized works of Catholic art depicting idolatrous subjects in favor of those depicting the real world ' and ordinary everyday scenes would have been seen as appropriate . In addition , many Protestants felt the very division of the world into secular ' and sacred ' was an artificial one if Man was created in God 's image then all parts of Man 's life should glorify God (Colossians , 3 :17

Even as Montaigne held the noble savage ' as a reflection of Nature so would Brughel 's patrons have seen the glory of God in the depiction of simple folk , engaged in everyday activities against the background of the natural world

Works Cited

Michel de Montaigne : On Cannibals (1580 (1999 (1999 . In

. Brian (Ed , Reading About the World (Vol . 2 . New York : Harcourt Brace

Pieter van der Heyden after Pieter Bruegel the Elder : The Battle about Money [Electronic (2006 . Version] . Retrieved 03 /08 /2007 from http /www .metmuseum .org /toah /hd /brue /hod_26 .72 .40 .htm

Pieter Brueghel the Elder [Electronic (2007 . Version] . Retrieved 03 /08 /2007 from http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Themes

Murray , M (1970 . God Of The Witches . London : Oxford University Press

Nosotro , R (2007 . Art of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation [Electronic Version] . Retrieved 03 /08 /2007 from http /www .hyperhistory .net apwh /essays /comp /cw20reformationart .htm 11end

Stridbeck , C . G (1956 'Combat between Carnival and Lent ' by Pieter Bruegel the Elder : An Allegorical Picture of the Sixteenth Century Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , 19 (1 /2 , 96-109

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