Bruegel and contemporaries

The turbulence of the sixteenth century wrought major changes in Netherlandish society, but also left clear traces in the art of the region. The destruction of religious images, the Spanish occupation and the Dutch Revolt are all occasionally reflected in it. Why do the Roman legionaries in Brueghel’s Procession to Calvary wear Spanish helmets? And what is that conspicuous Habsburg crest doing on their flag? Surely the double-headed eagle represents the much-resented foreign oppressor? And what about those crescent moons and drooping moustaches in Brueghel’s Conversion of St Paul? They must surely mean something. Were the artists of the Netherlandish Renaissance covert resistance heroes? Or simply pragmatists keen to satisfy their clients? We track the evidence from the luxurious Books of Hours of the Middle Ages, through the many works of Pieter Brueghel II (‘the Younger’) to the great artists of seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque.