COLLECTION NAME:
Graduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
‘Helping’ Others or Saving Yourself? Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Procession to Calvary and the Conversation over Performing ‘Good’ Deeds
Creator:
Krenzer, Ethan
Subject:
Thesis (M.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s (1525–1569) Procession to Calvary (1564) invites viewers to
consider the merits of performing good Catholic deeds during troubled times. Commissioned by
Niclaes Jongelinck (1517–1570), the Procession also asks its audience to consider how they
would behave if forced to aid someone against their will regardless of whose agenda it serves.
Paintings posing such moral quandaries had become more frequent during the sixteenth century
because of societal changes concerning religion occurring in northern Europe. Lingering on the
fourth scene of the stations of the cross out of the seven found during the period, as described in
the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Bruegel depicts Simon of Cyrene’s involuntary aid to
Jesus in his forced march out of Jerusalem to his arrival at Calvary. Living during the middle of
the sixteenth century, the artist worked at a time when the religious identity of the Low Countries
was undergoing a transformation due to Luther’s Reformation and the contrasts of cultural
identity through their association with the Catholic Hapsburg Empire. Social conventions were
changing and even the safety of the region was endangered. Wanting to maintain the Catholic
identity of the Low Countries, Hapsburg leaders and their associates caused disruption of the
area that was heretofore both their most profitable territory but largely independent of their direct
rule. Bruegel created a piece that tapped into the evolution of historical paintings from the
previous generation of Netherlandish masters, while also making a work that was unique to this
time through its attention to Simon of Cyrene."
consider the merits of performing good Catholic deeds during troubled times. Commissioned by
Niclaes Jongelinck (1517–1570), the Procession also asks its audience to consider how they
would behave if forced to aid someone against their will regardless of whose agenda it serves.
Paintings posing such moral quandaries had become more frequent during the sixteenth century
because of societal changes concerning religion occurring in northern Europe. Lingering on the
fourth scene of the stations of the cross out of the seven found during the period, as described in
the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Bruegel depicts Simon of Cyrene’s involuntary aid to
Jesus in his forced march out of Jerusalem to his arrival at Calvary. Living during the middle of
the sixteenth century, the artist worked at a time when the religious identity of the Low Countries
was undergoing a transformation due to Luther’s Reformation and the contrasts of cultural
identity through their association with the Catholic Hapsburg Empire. Social conventions were
changing and even the safety of the region was endangered. Wanting to maintain the Catholic
identity of the Low Countries, Hapsburg leaders and their associates caused disruption of the
area that was heretofore both their most profitable territory but largely independent of their direct
rule. Bruegel created a piece that tapped into the evolution of historical paintings from the
previous generation of Netherlandish masters, while also making a work that was unique to this
time through its attention to Simon of Cyrene."
Abstract:
*Key terms: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Procession to Calvary, Jesus, Simon of Cyrene, Niclaes Jongelinck, sixteenth century, the Low Countries, Hapsburg Empire, northern Europe
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia : Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2019-05
Format:
PDF : 127 pages, illustrations (some color)