Peter Burnett

 

 

 

Welcome to the website of author

Peter Burnett

 

 

http://leamingtonbooks.com

The Misanthrope by in 1568 is one of the few works Bruegel painted in canvas and not in oils.  It is a tempera work, and is also pretty rare because Breugel himself did the literary explanation of the picture in his own calligraphy.

The text is as treacherous as the picture: If the misanthrope is renouncing the world, why then does he carry his money, if not to tempt the thief, who represents the world, and who is trapped inside a glass ball?

What lurka here is a disguised criticism of certain types of ecclesiatics, as well as world-renouncers in general.  The misanthrope is actually as greedy as the thief who attempts to rob him, and he would also be a prisoner of a glass world.

This I think is why the painting is round.

The only ray of light here is the faithful shepherd seen in the background, right above the evil sphere.  He serenly watches his flock, enjoying that perfect Flemish countryside.

The glass ball is great, and can possibly even stand for what passed as science fiction in 1568.  Renouncing the world is never going to help the world, and never going to benefit yourself.


The Flemish inscription at bottom reads:

Om dat de werelt is soe ongetru / Daer om gha ic in den ru
"Because the world is perfidious, I am going into mourning"

What a message.  I think the world has become more misanthropic recently, because a lot of us seem to be in mourning for something, although it's not always clear what.

Breugel warns however that replacing one glass ball with another, is not the answer. Deep!