FRANK DETJE ÜBER DIE KUNST, METAPHERN ZU MISCHEN
(On the Art of Mixing Metaphors). Invitation for a discussion about Pieter Bruegel's painting "The Netherlandish Proverbs", 1559

1. Abstract (  Zusammenfassung)

Part I General information: This part contains some introductory information about Pieter Bruegel and his painting "The Netherlandish Proverbs" (1559). This part is divided into several sections. It is given information about the painting, the artist "Pieter Bruegel", his oevre and the time in which he lived. Therefore the facts, opinions and evaluations are collected from the literature. Due to contradictory data our knowledge still remains incomplete in inconsistent.

Part II Lists of previous identifications: There has been some attempt to discover which proverbs and proverbial expressions Pieter Bruegel actually depicted in his painting "Netherlandish Proverbs". Full lists of all identification will be given in this part.

It contains the work done by Franz Weinitz (1915), Johannes Bolte (1915), Wilhelm Fraenger (1923), Gustav Glück (1932ff), Das Bruegel Buch (1936ff), Eilert Pastor (1937, 1941), Jan Grauls (1957), Franz Roh (1960, 1967), Timothy Foote (1968, 1979), Max Seidel & Roger-Hendrik Marijnissen (1969), Roger-Hendrik Marijnissen (1969), Rainald Großhans (1973), Wolfgang Mieder (1979), Alan Dundes & Claudia A. Stibbe (1981), János Kass & András Lukácsy (1985), Roger-Hendrik Marijnissen (1988), Michael Gibson (1989), Michaël Deneweth (1991), Yoko Mori (1992, 1996), Ravensburger FPS (1994), Pierre Francastel (1995) und ATLAS.ti (1998). The interpretations of the copies painted by Pieter Brueghel the Younger will be listet as well. This part contains the works done by G.P.C. van Breugel (1876), Louis Maeterlinck (1903), Georges Marlier (1969), Hélène Mund (1976) and Jacqueline Folie (1980).

The works  concerning the painting of the Elder will be rendered individually using the same language that the authors used, that is either German, Dutch, French or English. A full list of identification will also be given (see Appendix).

Most of the identifications of proverbs or proverbial expressions have been written either in Dutch or German. A lot of papers additionally contain explanations of the meaning of these expressions. Special interest is given to the work of Dundes & Stibbe (1981), who also give English translations of all cited proverbs and proverbial expressions because the third part of this article refers mainly to this model explanation of the painting. This is expressed with the chosen title since the title of their booklet is "The Art of Mixing Metaphors".

Part III Some suggestions for further investigation: It was in 1981 when Alan Dundes and Claudia A. Stibbe wrote their superior analysis of Pieter Bruegel's painting "The Netherlandish Proverbs" (1559). But nevertheless it is now more than 15 years ago, and there are still a lot of questions about this picture. I will summarise these questions that are still without answer and even add some more. I will also make some suggestions for further interpretations concerning some details of the picture that have not been recognised yet. I hope that in the end this will lead to new series of investigations of this painting to answer these questions.

Part IV Appendix: This part contains the following information: thematically ordered list of references, list of references with annotations by Wolfgang Mieder, list of all cited proverbs, different imagemaps of the painting.

2. Contents

Teil I: Allgemeine Informationen über Pieter Bruegels Gemälde "Die holländischen Sprichwörter", 1559

• 1. Das Gemälde "Die holländischen Sprichwörter" (1559)
• 2. Andere Sprichwortbilder von Pieter Bruegel dem Älteren
• 3. Bildliche Darstellung von Sprichwörtern und sprichwörtlichen Redensarten
• 4. Die verschiedenen Namen des Bildes "Die holländischen Sprichwörter"
• 5. Die Person "Pieter Bruegel der Ältere"
  • 5.1 Zum Geburtsdatum
  • 5.2 Zum Geburtsort
  • 5.3 Zur Schreibweise seines Namens
  • 5.4 Seine Beinamen
  • 5.5 Seine Lehrer
  • 5.6 Die große Reise
  • 5.7 Weitere Lebensdaten
  • 5.8 Sein Tod
• 6. Die Zeit, in der Pieter Bruegel lebte
• 7. Sein Werk
• 8. Sein (vermeintliches) Menschenbild
• 9. Syntaktische Analyse seines Gemäldes
• Anmerkungen

Teil II: Aufstellungen der bisherigen Deutungen

• 1. Chronologische Reihenfolge der publizierten Beiträge, die Deutungen des Bildes "Die holländischen Sprichwörter" enthalten
• 2. Listen der Deutungen

Teil III: Einige Vorschläge für weitere Untersuchungen

• 1. Einleitung
• 2. Zusammenfassung der Probleme, die in der Literatur angesprochen wurden
• 3. Weitere Schlüssel für spätere Entdeckungen?
• 4. Weitere Identifikationen?
• Anmerkungen

Teil IV. Appendix

• 1. Thematisches Literaturverzeichnis
• 2. Liste der Literatur mit dem Kommentar von Wolfgang Mieder (aus: Proverb Scholarship. An Annotated Bibliography)
• 3. Verzeichnis aller genannten Sprichwörter und Redensarten - Identifikationen zu Pieter Bruegel der Ältere "Die holländischen Sprichwörter"
• 4. Bilder zum Anklicken (Imagemaps)
  • 4.1 Dundes & Stibbe (1981)
  • 4.2 Deutsch mit Erklärungen: Grosshans (1973)
  • 4.3 Englisch mit Erklärungen: Dundes & Stibbe (1981)
  • 4.4 Französisch mit Erklärungen: Marijnissen (1969)
  • 4.5 Holländisch mit Erklärungen: Grauls (1957)
• 5. Die Todsünden, die Tugenden, Elck

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Copyright © Frank Detje
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