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Open Secrets: Meditations on Brueghel |
| Section: THE ARTS / ART |
| Author: Alexander Eliot |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/1997 |
| Size: 2,264 Words, 14,090 Characters |
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Worthwhile paintings require hours, not minutes, of contemplation. Studying them is not enough; they must be made a part of your experience. For instance, the silent poetry of Pieter Brueghel the Elder's panels "comes through" only for those who go to see them--and wait in front of them. Recently I had the joy of contemplating a pair of Brueghel's masterpieces at the Royal Beaux-Arts Museum in Brussels. I'd like to begin by sharing the wonder of that with you.
Brueghel (1525--1569) was William Shakespeare's equal. Combining miniaturist precision with monumental sweep, he made art, science, social observation, and religious aspiration chime as one. Yet art critics and historians generally have shortchanged this Belgian's reputation. All too often he's presented as a wry, secular "peasant...
. . .
...idea, however, cannot be pinpointed. Nor can they be separated. Yet they are the open secrets at the heart of all great art.
The truth is that every pictorial or literary artist of merit interweaves known with unknown, manifest with unmanifest, to create something fresh. To tell the truth, that's just how our own minds work when operating at full capacity. It's a seriously playful process.
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