72 Culture TheEconomistMarch12th 2022
Suleiman’s reign, up to Ibrahim’s death,
provides the framework for Mr de Bel
laigue’s vivid and compelling narrative.
This is a new genre for an author who
has written, in a journalistic and scholarly
vein, about the contemporary and early
modern histories of Iran, Turkey and the
wider Middle East (and has reported for
The Economistfrom that region). He pre
sents his story like a novel, but it is not
fiction; every detail has been diligently
researched, for example by perusing diar
ies in difficult Venetian dialect. To learn
about Suleiman’s accession ceremony, he
studied an artwork by a master miniaturist
in the Topkapi Palace Museum.
Indeed it might be said that ceremonies
in all their variety are Mr de Bellaigue’s fa
vourite thing. Obsessively but infectiously,
he relates the finer points of political,
social and military rituals. Whether he is
describing a lavish dinner for Italian mer
chants on the Bosporus, the stately
progress of Suleiman’s armies through the
Balkans or a mass circumcision, he has an
eye for the colourful, absurd and ironic.
Holding up a mirror to Suleiman and
his court, the narrativeopensinthecon
trasting, but no less ritualistic,worldof
Venice—a power destinedtocompetewith
the Ottomans, but alsoto interact with
them in mutually beneficialways.Asthe
epitome of that ambivalentrelationship,
Mr de Bellaigue introducesAndreaGritti,
who became doge (or ruler)ofVenicein- He had spent morethan 20 yearsin
the Ottoman capital, firstasa merchant,
then as a diplomat, thenasanincarcerated
espionage suspect, andfinallyasthebro
ker of a VenetianOttomanpeacetreaty.
The book describes howoneofhissons,
Alvise Gritti, settled in whattodayisIstan
bul and befriended both Suleiman and
Ibrahim. Eventually, in1534, Alvisewas
captured and killed duringa shadymilit
ary assault on Transylvania.Beforethat,it
could be said that a single,sophisticated
family enjoyed influence in both great
maritime powers.
By flashing betweentheAdriaticand
the Bosporus, Mr de Bellaiguebringshome
many such links, comparisonsandcom
monalities. Both of theportcitiesthathe
evokes brimmed with ostentatiouswealth
extracted from distant lands.Butforallthe
cynicism of its governance,Venicewasa
lawbased state where theelectionofthe
doge, for example, involved elaborate
rules. The winner had topledgerespectfor
the established system.
The sultan, by contrast,wasnotsubject
to any earthly checks orbalances.Asa rep
resentative of God he couldmakehisown
laws, and no manmadestatutecouldcon
strain him. As this bookshows,livingin
the penumbra of such supremepowercan
be seductive and intoxicating.Buttheend
of the story is often tragic.n
“TheHuntersintheSnow”Let the storm
rage on
S
pellboundbycoldyetsomehow cosy
too, the most famous winter landscape
in art history adorns book covers, cards,
calendars, posters and tea towels. Pieter
Bruegel’s painting “The Hunters in the
Snow” has featured in a clutch of films,
novels and poems, too. In Andrei Tarkov
sky’s visionary sciencefiction movie of
1972, “Solaris”, the familiar snowscape dec
orates a space station. In the witty, Bruegel
inspired thriller “Headlong” that he pub
lished in 1999, Michael Frayn, an English
novelist and dramatist, writes:There they go again, those weary men with
their gaunt dogs, on the walls of hospital
waitingrooms and students’ lodgings, on
your mantelpiece Christmas after Christ
mas, trudging away from us off the winter
hills behind our backs, down into the snow
bound valley beneath. Heads bowed, the three hunters, with
their 13 dogs, have only a single scrawny
fox to show for their shivering day. Obli
vious cooks prepare a pig around a fire, be
neath the broken sign of the Stag Inn; in
the distance skaters, curlers and icehock
ey players enjoy a pair of frozen ponds. Be
yond, mountains rise into jagged peaksneverseenintheartist’s nativeNether
lands.ApoembyWilliamCarlosWilliams
notes that “Bruegel the painter...has
chosen/a winterstruck bush for his/
foreground to/complete the picture”.
From that skeletal bush to the ominous
crows and magpie above this frigid do
main, Bruegel’s minute details build into a
scene that captures the essence of a Euro
pean winter. Painted in 1565 and now in the
Bruegel Gallery of Vienna’s Kunsthistoris
chesmuseum, after earlier stays in Brus
sels and Prague, this fabled image of a sea
son began as one of a series of works about
the times of the year painted for Nicolaes
Jonghelinck, an Antwerp banker. Five sur
vive; Mr Frayn’s ingenious plot turns on
the alleged discovery of a lost spring scene.
It is hard to stop looking at “The Hunt
ers in the Snow”. At once vibrantly and ic
ily, it tells viewers about the harsh winter
of 156465 that led to a dismal harvest in the
subsequent summer. Some historians now
treat Bruegel’s fantastic realism as
evidence of the “Little Ice Age” that began
to bite in the late 16th century as European
temperatures fell.
It is remarkable also for what it doesn’t
show. Many in the Low Countries, particu
larly the nobility, resented their Habsburg
overlords. Calvinist leaders stirred up
anger against their Catholic counterparts.
Hunger and the social stress of the freeze
deepened this bitterness. In 1565 the re
pression of Protestant heresy intensified.
Within a year, the worldchanging Dutch
revolt against the Spanish would begin.
Bruegel’s patrons included Cardinal
Granvelle, a detested enforcer of Spanish
rule. Yet his cycle of the seasons hardly
whispers of the unrest of its time and
place. In Mr Frayn’s words, the pictures de
pict not the eve of revolution but “a
historyless land in a historyless year”. As
all around it changed—from weather to
politics to faith—“The Hunters in the
Snow” froze Europe’s winter into anever
green myth. It enchants viewers still.nPieter Bruegel’s painting is an
immortal depiction of winterhome
entertainment