1 See Vlekke, B., Evolution of the Dutch Nation. (New York, 1945), p. 136 Google Scholar and Motley, J. L., The Rise of the Dutch Republic. (New York, 1855), pp. 103 Google Scholar f.

2 See Glück, G., The Paintings of Bruegel. (Vienna, 1934)Google Scholar, passim; Grossman, F., Pietcr Bruegel, the Paintings. (London, 1955)Google Scholar, passim; and Lassaigne, J. and Delevoy, R., Flemish Painting. (Lausanne, 1958), pp. 48 Google Scholar f. A very recent exception to this general viewpoint is that of Colacicchi, P., All the Paintings of Pieter Bruegel. (New York, 1961)Google Scholar, who writes, ‘We must now leave aside all the arbitrary and anachronistic interpretations of Bruegcl's works proposed by quite a few critics who, compelled to solve many a puzzle in order to explain their meanings, have ended by seeing political allusions in almost every one of them’ (pp. 17-18).

3 The noted Belgian scholar Henri Hymans first offered the suggestion that the Duke of Alba might be present in Bruegel's ‘The Massacre of the Innocents,’ ‘Pierre Brueghel le Vicux,’ Gazette des Beaux Arts 1 (1891), 31.

4 Bastalaer, R. and de Loo, G. Hulin, Pierre Brueghel FAncien. (Brussels, 1907), pp. 128– 129 Google Scholar. However, the arguments for this association have been effectively answered by M. Dvorák, who wrote, ‘Ob die Volkszahlung und dcr Kindcrmord als gcgcnstücke gedacht sein konntcn, blcibt fraglich, weil bei Bruegels gewohnheit das gleiche Format nicht viel bedeutet und weil die beiden Stoffe den sich fast widersprechenden Erzahlungcn der Evangclicn Matthai und Luca cntnommen sind’ (Die Gemdlde Peter Bruegels des Älteren, [Vienna, 1941], p. 86).

5 The earlier date has been suggested by Tolnay, C. de, Pierre Bruegel L'Ancien. (Brussels, 1935)Google Scholar, p. 81—the later date by F. Grossman.

6 In examining portraits of the sixteenth century, in painting as well as graphic media, for contemporary portraits of Alba, the author was struck by the consistency of beard types depicted. Thus the beard on the figure in black stood out all the more as a distinctive feature.

7 There are only four works containing a figure with such a beard. They are ‘The Adoration of the Magi,’ London; ‘The Adoration of the Magi,’ Brussels; ‘St. John Preaching in the Wilderness,’ Budapest; and ‘The Misanthrope,’ Naples. In the ‘Magi’ panels the beard in each case is on one magus and is clearly typological. In the Budapest panel, the beard appears on one of the disciple-like figures standing behind St. John. Again, the beard is clearly typological, and so with the Naples panel. In none of the examples does this feature stand out as a specific characteristic, as in ‘The Massacre of the Innocents.’

8 I wish to thank Herr W. Baumann of the Portrait and Picture Collections of the Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, for his assistance in finding this engraving as well as procuring a photograph of it. I wish also to thank the Nationalbibliothek for permission to reproduce Fig. 3.

9 See Prescott, W., History of the Reign of Philip the Second. (Philadelphia, 1883), 11, 133 Google Scholar f.

10 Neither the Gospels nor Apocrypha make any reference to the season of the year of Paul's conversion. However, the Golden Legend sets the date at January 25, which is still the Feast Day of the Conversion of St. Paul in the Roman Missal. Most of Bruegel's contemporaries or near contemporaries, such as Jan Bcllegambe, depict the scene without any reference to the time of year (as in the Gospel account of the event). Hence Bruegel's departure from iconographic and liturgical tradition gains significance in specifying a particular season. Taken in conjunction with the specific, Alpine locale, the historical topicality of the painting becomes more convincing.

11 I am grateful to Dr. I. Zupnick for this suggestion. A further clarification of Brucgel's meaning is suggested by the quotation from Henri Nicolaes. See note 18 below.

12 Prescott, 11, 170.

13 ‘It afflicted her [Margaret] to the bottom of her soul to have been thus treated by the king,’ ibid., 155.

14 A banner with a blue field and yellow sunburst hangs from a staff above the doorway of the building to the right of this ‘Hapsburg’ cavalier. A study of the coats-of-arms of Austrian and Bavarian nobility failed to reveal any device similar to the one on the banner. However, in the Minorite Church in Vienna there is a shield, with the identical emblem, frescoed on the west wall of the gallery (the site of the present organ loft) dating from the late fifteenth century. This emblem has been identified as that of Wolfgang Püchler, Bishop of the Minorite Order in Vienna, ca. 1475. However, I have been unable to find any trace of his family or lineage, and it would thus be importunate to assert any concrete relationship.

15 Het Schilderboeck (trans., C. van de Wall) [New York, 1936], p. 152.

16 For example, Lassaignc, J. and Delevoy, R., and Zupnick, I. L., ‘The Netherlands’ Agony and Picter Bruegel (1559-1569),’ Art Journal. XXIII, No. 4 (1964), 283–289 Google Scholar.

17 However, earlier critics and commentators on Bruegel were not so loathe to take a position. Cf. I. Zupnick, p. 283, n. 1. An even stronger position was taken by the amateur collector and bibliophile, Baron de Rciffcnberg (‘Notice sur Un Tableau Satirique relatif au Gouverncmcnt du Due D'Albe,’ Bulletin du Bibliophile v (May 1838), 99-104). He credits a panel, in the collection of M. Faure, editor of The Independent, to Bruegel. It is described as allegorical and depicted Alba enthroned, holding a chain binding female figures symbolic of the seventeen lowland provinces. Standing beside the Duke is Cardinal Granvelle. Counts Egmont and Horn are shown receiving the death blow. A devilish figure whispers in Alba's car. The background showed the razing of a Netherlandish village. All of the figures in the painting were labelled, and in addition it carried a Flemish legend. Cf. Rciffcnberg, ibid., p. 102.

The only evidence of the one-time existence of such a work is an anonymous sixteenthcentury engraving, now in the Boymans Museum, Rotterdam. The engraving is not in Bruegel's style, nor does it follow exactly the panel Rciffenberg attributed to Bruegel, but it is close enough in its main features, to lend credence to his arguments, and ours.

18 One of these was a group known as the ‘Schola Charitas,’ led by Henri Nicolaes. Nicolaes believed, ‘Toutes les religions son les symboles d'une seule verité et la Sainte Ecriturc n'a qu'un allégorique: ellc revêt d'une forme generale les événements de la vie quotidiennc.’ Cf. C. de Tolnay, pp. 8 f.

19 This friendship is attested to by the gift of a painting Bruegel made to Abraham Ortelius. Cf. G. Glück, ‘A Newly Discovered Painting by Brueghel, the Elder,’ Burlington Magazine. LVI (May 1930), 284–286 Google Scholar.

20 Along with Ortelius, other well-known members of the ‘Schola Charitas’ were such men, active in the struggle against Spain, as Christophe Plantin (cf. Rooses, Max, Christophc Plantin. Antwerp, 1890, p. 67 Google Scholar f.) and Dirck Coornhert. Coornhert was a theologian, political theorist, and engraver. He wrote a manifesto in favor of William of Orange in 1566 and was active in the struggle against Spain until imprisoned at the Hague. He wrote in favor of tolerance and an end to capital punishment for heretics. For a complete discussion of the role of artists and intellectuals in the struggle against Spain, see Pirennc, H., Histoirc de Belgiquc. (Brussels, 1923), 11, 215 Google Scholar f.

On the other hand, Terlindens, Ch. (Revue Beige d'Archéologie et d'Histoire de l’Art. XII, No. 4(1942), 229–257)Google Scholar believes that although Bruegel counted these men among his friends, it was only as individuals, and he cannot be construed to have been a member of their group or to have shared their beliefs. He goes even further in believing Bruegel to have remained ‘essentially bourgeois, with certain plebian tastes,’ and not at all troubled by the religious and philosophical problems of his day. This, of course, is based upon the untenable proposition that the bourgoisie were uninterested in the religious problems of their day. For evidence to the contrary, see H. Pirenne, Early Democracies in the Low Countries (Urban Society and Political Conflict in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance), [New York, 1963], esp. chaps. 9 and 10, pp. 201-228.

21 Trans, by Barnouw, Adriaan in The Fantasy of Pieter Brueghel. (New York, 1947)Google Scholar. The Latin inscription reads: ‘What riches are, what is a vast heap of yellow metal, a strong-box filled with new coins, among such enticements and ranks of thieves, the fierce hook will indicate to all. Booty makes the thief, ardent zeal serves up every evil, and a pillage suitable for fierce spoils.’ (Trans, by Klein, H. in Graphic Worlds of Peter Bruegel the Elder. [New York, 1963], p. 146 Google Scholar).

22 Quoted and trans, from the Adagia ‘Dulce bellum inexpertis’ by Huizinga, J. in Erasmus and the Age of Reformation. (New York, 1957), p. 154 Google Scholar.

23 Ibid.