Word: peering
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Bruegel makes one peer down through winter dusk like some half-frozen bird upon the wing. He gives the March floods room to rise, roaring about the dikes of Flanders in time of carnival and willow pruning on the dark, hard-budded land. He shows the earth veiled in blue boundlessness at haying time. Then in the fall comes the sacrifice of her apples, her grapes and human fruits as well. The herd plods home. A body dangles from a gibbet on a hill. Reality was his subject, and truth his object. Yet these paintings are not finickily meticulous...
...analyze a Bruegel very far. He has arranged things differently. He does invite one to pause long; to bend and peer out at the world again in unaccustomed ways. His art asserts itself by very slow degrees. First comes sensuous enjoyment, for he veils each image in the most extraordinary counterfeits of nature. Second come observation, characterization, storytelling - things to notice, in a word. So much so that each of his pictures takes hours to explore. The third and final stage of studying a Bruegel, though, comes when one turns away. For the painting remains in one's mind...