Conversion of Paul (Bruegel)

The conversion of Paul is a 1567 oil painting by the Flemish painter arisen Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The 108 x 156 cm large work depicts a scene from the Book of Acts and is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in Hall 10

• 2.1 Historical Context
• 2.2 The " Damascus experience " of Paul ( Acts )

The painting

Content

The scene is a bizarre mountain landscape with view of the distant plains with sea coast. A large hostile array of armed soldiers and horsemen make Rises, but the road is always ungangbarer and is further back already overcast by low-lying clouds. Right in the center of the image, but not emphasized, a fallen rider can be seen who looks up to the left where a ray of light breaks through the clouds.

Signature

The signature is in the lower right corner on a boulder: Brvegel MDLXVII ( Bruegel 1567).

Interpretation

Mountain landscapes appear frequently in Bruegel's work. He was returning from his stay in Italy in the summer of 1552 also to an Alps trip, probably through the southern Switzerland, used. His first biographer Karel van Mander remarks, Bruegel had when he was in the Alps, all the mountains and rocks swallowed and regurgitated as painting boards again.

Bruegel varies a topic from the biblical book of Acts: the Damascus experience of persecutor Saul. It conforms to the customs Bruegel the titular event indeed to place in the middle, but otherwise not particularly noteworthy. Saul appeared on the road to Damascus, where he wanted to capture Christians, Jesus Christ. This threw him from his horse and struck him with temporary blindness. The scene at Bruegel, although, unlike the biblical account, a mountain range, but can be seen from the top left the heavenly light that blinds Saul. The artist thus reversing an inner conversion experience to the exterior to: The way over the mountains is locked to the tracker, forcing him to turn back.

A black rider in back view in the right half of the image is placed so that he must see to fallers. The picture is dated 1567, a year after the Calvinist iconoclasm. At the time appointed by Philip II new governor Duke of Alba from Italy drew with mercenaries over the Alps to the Spanish Netherlands to quell the uprising. According to popular interpretation, the artist expresses the hope, let him be cruel known "black" Alba convert, so " be from Saul to Paul." For the same subject area comes of the Innocents, from 1566, moved to the Bruegel biblical events in a Flemish village. The picture probably shows a punitive expedition still under Margaret of Parma, even if the leader of mounted spearmen is often identified as Alba. The London Original image ( Hampton Court ) is strongly repainted, also the signature is half cut off and the dating absent. A copy of Pieter Brueghel the Younger, which should come closest to the original state, depends in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Issue

The conversion of Paul is as Conversion of St. Paul in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Room 10 with, among other things together: Massacre of the Innocents, ( Pieter Bruegel the Younger ) Fight between Carnival and Lent, The Peasant Wedding, The Return of the Herd, Cross, The Kids, The gloomy Day, The hunters in the Snow and Big Tower of Babel.

Background

Historical Context

Philip II, the son of Emperor Charles V. had laid in the summer of 1559 after the victorious war against France its headquarters from Brussels to Castile, which was seen as a demotion in the Netherlands. After all, he appointed his half-sister Margaret of Parma, a native of Fleming, the governor- general of the seventeen provinces. The individual provinces, which had relatively large autonomy, in turn, received their own native nobility leader as governor.

Soon, however, dispute flared up on the reorganization of dioceses and even originating from the reign of Charles V. heretic laws against Protestants. Of the noble leaders for strategic reasons favored the radical Calvinism spread, his followers demanded a theocracy. At the peak occurred in August 1566 to a six-day iconoclasm, during which more than four hundred churches were destroyed. In response, Philip II continued from his half-sister and appointed Álvarez de Toledo ( Duke Alba ) as the new governor. Initially, this could quash the uprising successful, but ( among other things) the introduction of high taxes fanned the rebellion again, which led eventually to the partition of the country into a Catholic south (Belgium ) and a Protestant north ( today's Netherlands).

The " Damascus experience " of Paul ( Acts )

The Roman officer Saul wanted by authority of the High Priest to arrest Christians in Damascus and bring to Jerusalem. Before he got there, blinding him a ray of light from heaven. He fell from his horse, and a voice said to him, " Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me " The companion stood beside confused because although they could hear the voice but see no light. The phenomenon revealed himself as Jesus Christ and commanded him to go to town and wait. When Saul opened his eyes he was blind, and remained so for three days. At the same time the Lord said to a disciple named Ananias he should go to the house of Judas in Straight Street and ask for Saul of Tarsus. This would have had a vision, according to which a man named Ananias would make him see again by laying on of hands. When this was done, was converted Saul was baptized and preached in the synagogues in Damascus Christianity (Acts 9, ELB EU).