Sponsor: Golden Artist Colors

Lourdes Bernard on Pieter Bruegel

Lourdes Bernard writes about Peter Bruegel’s Wine of St. Martin’s Feast Day (1566 – 1567).Bernard observes: “The painting’s unique composition is a departure from the other paintings by Bruegel. For example, in the Procession to Calvary, the landscape dominates the painting and acts as a container for the multiple dramas that unfold. In Wine of St. Martin’s Day, the painting space is compressed, pushing the landscape to the edges of a rectangle that barely contains all the activity within it. Most of the figures are stacked vertically and, as they move up and across, they create a mound of humanity clustered around a wine barrel. The overall effect is that of a pinwheel from which some of the peasants have spun off to land at the edges of the painting where various vignettes unfold.”