Peter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) and the Esoteric Tradition
RICHARD TEMPLE, PhD (2007)
Richard Temple is the proprietor of the Temple Gallery in Holland Park. He has specialised in Russian icons for many years and has published two books on the subject. He describes his thesis saying, “Peter Bruegel the Elder’s genial, comic and sometimes cruel images of peasant life have a universal appeal. They have entered the popular culture through Christmas cards, and poster reproductions. Yet behind the harsh realism of his study of humanity —often set in vast sweeping landscape settings— lies a deep philosophical mystery. Like Shakespeare, his near contemporary, Bruegel speaks to us through the largely forgotten language of symbolic imagery.
The first part of the thesis traces the influence of the esoteric tradition from the Hellenistic period up to the Renaissance, uncovering its expression in allegory and symbolism. The second part analyses Bruegel’s late paintings to reveal their cosmological, moral, and spiritual dimensions. Bruegel sees Man as the Microcosm and the dilemma that confronts him: the challenge to fulfil his higher destiny in the Macrocosm. Looking at the pictures we can begin to see that he is among the foremost Renaissance mystical thinkers. Drawing on the traditions of the Perennial Philosophy he invites us to observe the pageant of all human life.”
