In today’s class, we wrapped up our discussion on the High Renaissance in Northern Europe by studying the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bruegel, initially from the Netherlands, traveled to Italy and was fascinated by the mountainous Alps that he witnessed. Being from a very flat landscape in the Netherlands, Bruegel made sculptures of mountains in the Alps, as he was intrigued by the hilly landscape. Bruegel’s works often poke fun at people and this is exactly what his “The Blind Leading the Blind” artwork did. The painting depicts a bunch of blind guys who are in the process of falling in a ditch. It represents the idea of when someone is in charging a group of people when they don’t even know where they are supposed to go. A countryside contemporary setting is depicted, with a church in the background. The scene also depicts a statement from Christ when he spoke about the blind, however, Christ’s saying was about spiritual blindness, not human blindness. Bruegel knew this as well, and so he could be making a critical statement about the church institution.
We then shifted our focus to Italian baroque art. This period is defined by emotion and the counter-reformation movement. The Catholic Church was losing business because of Luther’s criticisms of the papacy and they needed to do something to stop losing followers. As a result, the Catholic Church undertook a rebranding plan at the Council of Trent from 1545 to 1563. The goal of the meetings were to fight against the advancements of Protestantism. The company of Jesuits was created to fight back against the progress of the Reformation. The Council of Trent formed guidelines to better represent things. The Catholics used images and art to convince people to be Catholic rather than Protestant. Ultimately, the council was somewhat successful, with spreading Catholicism around the world, however many Europeans still became followers of Protestantism.