220319: fun./review to come... ok review now days later. we lived in bruxelles when my father was on sabbatical so my parents really liked Brueghel. his painting, politics etc. so i nevrf much have. now of course i know many artists visual etc. and also now old enough to appreciate the old! 42 yr old. rather be morning comet bright and flashy poet or write/paint/think throughout your life? maybe that is the choice for performance artists/athletes whose career peaks and passes very young...
life does not begin at 40 in 1560s. beginning of the end for Pieter. this series of linked vignettes cover his life quick simple fast and, for me, fortunately without excess of histrionics. this is the mature artist who is able to find/recall all the sources and desire of past work. maybe the way we would all like to make sense of our lives. and artists are privileged to do this for us. maybe. so i read this as pleasant fantasy of dying artist who remains artist til last breathe. sad of course in dying but to be remembered for such work, work that comes to mind surprisingly easily as i read, work that can be seen as sort of an art-history hinge that among other things, affirms how we individuals can be artists, start anywhere, be anyone...
damn this makes me feel old though. is my life over? not in my reading but yes in 1569. and makes me want to look at his work again..