13. A bull in the foreground seems to examine us curiously.
His round eye captures the attention …
the animal is accompanying a carpenter and a woman sitting on the back of a donkey, wrapped in a large
blue cape
16. It is not difficult to identify these two figures as Joseph and Mary who, upon the orders of Cesar Augustus,
were travelling to Bethlehem to register in the census of the Roman Empire ...
24. in front of the inn:
a person is giving his money, probably to a tax collector
another fills out a register
and
a red cupboard with the Habsburg coat of arms hanging
… a denouncement of the heavy taxes imposed by Philip II of Spain in the Low Countries?
33. on the vast snowy expanse where everyone is going about their work …
children play with spinning tops, slide on the frozen water,
carts are being loaded with sacks of grain, people warm themselves by the fire
chickens peck and birds soar while the donkey obediently follows his master
36. the children immersed in a snowball fight,
the man ties his skates on the edge of the river
a child who, arms stretched out, is scaring away birds in front of the castle in ruins
42. … a detail quite strange
tavern in the hollow of a tree with a sign above saying "In De Swaen"
45. a man, hands in pockets, watching the sun ...
the men’s trousers and chasubles and the women's aprons and bonnets,
the carts and the barge on the river,
the jug and the wicker basket
a window into the lives of our ancestors …
53. olga_oes
The Census at Bethlehem
by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
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54. The Census at Bethlehem
by
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
1565
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Seen from above, the snow-covered village stretches on the one side to a ruined castle and on the other, beyond the pond, as far as
the church.
People are going about their daily tasks: sweeping the snow, building a cabin, crossing the pond on foot next to a ferry-boat caught in
the ice, gathering around a fire. The children are playing, throwing snowballs, skating, spinning their tops, sledging.
In the right hand foreground, a man with a large carpenter's saw is leading an ox and an ass, the latter bearing a women wrapped
tightly in an ample blue mantle.
Without attracting attention, they pick their way between the carts of beer barrels and bales. These are Joseph and Mary, who have
come to Bethlehem to be enrolled in the universal census ordered by Emperor Augustus.
The Gospel episode is associated with the payment of tax. And indeed to the left, the crowd is pressing in front of the tax-gatherer's
office, installed at the window of the inn, whilst in front of the door, a pig is being killed.
In a masterful synthesis of religious painting, genre scene and landscape, Bruegel recomposes everyday life, revisiting the biblical
story to create a picture of a rarely equaled richness, which can be read in several ways.
14 copies of this panel are known, one of which, from the hand of Brueghel the Younger, is also in the Brussels museum.