New York Magazine - USA (2020-03-30)

60 newyork| march30–april12, 2020

wallacestevens wroteofdyingas

“absoluteandwithoutmemorial.”Thisis

Pieter Bruegel’s circa 1562 world-

masterpiecepaintingTheTriumphof Death,

a panoramicpandemoniumofanarmy of

skeletonslayingwastetoa barrenburning

landscapewhilemurderingevery human

beinginsight.Lately,I havespentsomuch

ti mecontemplatingthispainting,I feelI

havealmost beenlivinginsideit.Thepaint-

inghangsinsideMadrid’s

Pr adoMuseum—forme, the

greatest museumof West-

ern painting on earth,and

one whose collection is

enthralling evenfromthe

distance of a keyboard.

No one gets outofthis

painting alive—exceptthose

already dead. Fromtheleft,

a cart pulled by anemaci-

ated horse and filledwitha

mountain of skullsis driven

by a skeleton ringinga bell

and holding an hourglass

that has run outofsand.

Directly above, achoruso

skeletons clad inRoman

togas or mock angelrobes

throws a man intoa moat;a bloatedbody

floats by. Some in thisgroupblowtrumpets

signaling this godlessapocalypse.A skele-

ton sticks his headoutofthefaceofa clock;

midnight is nigh. Twoskeletonsnearbyring

30

Browse

Masterpieces

of Mass

Death

BY JERRY SALTZ

two large bells. They toll for us all.

In the distance, bodies hang from gallows

and are tied to pikes, decapitated, pursued

by hellhounds, thrown off cliffs, torn apart,

and bound to Catherine or breaking wheels

mounted at the top of tall poles. These were

common sights to Bruegel.

About a decade before Bruegel was born

near Breda, Martin Luther made his 95

Theses public, initiating the Reformation.

By 1562, about when this

painting was made, Catho-

lic Spain controlled the ter-

ritory and the Inquisition

was in full cry. All suspected

Protestants were summar-

ily tortured and killed out-

right, placed on the very

kind of wheels andgallows

seen in the painting. Look

closely and you’ll see bones

beneath these devices. The

Spanish forbade anyone to

remove the bodies, which

were left to rot orbe con-

sumed by carrion-eating

birds and dogs. Bruegel

knew brutal fear,human

cruelty, and the terrible

mirrorofprecarious life and mindless

death.Thecurseis global and happening to

everyoneeverywhere at once.

Eventhoughhe is among the greatest art-

istswhoeverlived, Bruegel has always been

an odd man out of art history. Only about 40

paintings survive, along with numerous

prints; his work sold well. Critics, art histori-

ans, and academics scoffed at it. To me, his

Harvesters painting at the Met is the second-

best yellow painting in art history, after only

van Gogh; his jam-packed scenes and pic-

tures of deeply human peasants can take

many lifetimes to piece together. Modernism

and academia had little use for his simple,

roly-poly, awkward caricature-like world. Yet

Bruegel’s work has a sweetness of life and

one of the most gentle, loving, and nuanced

Getting close

to a Bruegel

is like running

your eyes

through

combed hay—

rough,

textured into

infinity, every

microdetail

filled with

energy.