Art: HIDDEN MASTERPIECES: Brueghel’s Proverbs

ALMOST a century ago a Belgian knight named Fritz Mayer van den Bergh began collecting art objects. He concentrated on Northern Renaissance examples, amassed some 1,000 pieces of high quality before his death in 1901. To hold the collection as a memorial, his mother founded the Mayer van den Bergh Museum. Tucked away in Antwerp’s banking district and unchanged in 55 years, the museum is open every day except Monday in the summertime, and on even-numbered days all winter, charges only 5 francs (10¢) admission. Yet the number of visitors annually is under 5,000. Art historians love the place, but few tourists ever hear of it.

Reigning spirit of the museum, as of the Northern Renaissance, is Pieter Brueghel the Elder, represented by two paintings: Mad Margaret and Flemish Proverbs. The first represents a giant housewife on what appears to be a militant invasion of hell. It has been widely reproduced. The second—Flemish Proverbs—may well be Brueghel’s earliest extant painting, consists of twelve separate wooden “platters” framed as a unit. (One is reproduced life-size opposite, nine of the rest overleaf.) Pieter Brueghel the Younger framed the platters, but only the elder Brueghel could have done the actual painting. Only his hand was firm enough to form such airy medallions of understanding.

Almost nothing is known of Brueghel’s life. He became a member of the Antwerp artists’ guild in 1551, traveled through Italy the next year. He first supported himself by making sketches for popular engravings, blossomed into genius in the last decade of his life, and died in 1569, before his 45th birthday. He left a wife and two sons. He was self-possessed, a habitual stroller and something of a practical joker; that about completes the record. Brueghel doubtless kept off the center of the stage on purpose: one sees better from the wings.