Thursday, January 06, 2011

Epiphany


The Reverend Dr Michael Banner, Dean of Trinity College, Cambridge spoke about Brueghal's Adoration of the Magi on Thought for the Day this morning. In this depiction, the nativity scene is in the bottom left hand corner rather than being the central focus of the painting. The Three Kings do not have much majesty. There are ruins of a cathedral on the right. There are soldiers amongst the crowd. Brueghal's message is that God appears to a broken world, ravaged by war, scarcely noticed by the multitude.

6 Comments:

Blogger Angus said...

Herod and the slaughter of the innocents ?

11:55 am  
Blogger Whispering Walls said...

That's right Angus, as soon as the kings left, Herod organised the slaughter of the innocents.

9:04 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it was Breughels way of propaganda against the Spanish occupiers.and there is symbolism in every figure and their actions it all has meaning... very complex ..great choice of pic WW

7:31 am  
Blogger Whispering Walls said...

Many thanks for that interesting observation, Anon.

9:51 am  
Blogger Ellee Seymour said...

I think the message is pretty much the same today.

7:09 pm  
Blogger Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Looking at that makes me feel so cold!

8:55 pm  

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