MICROSTORY OF ART

MICROSTORY OF ART
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Dedicated to Interviews with Bruegel

Interviews with Bruegel (III)

(10.6.2023) Chronologically this was actually the first interview I conducted with Pieter Bruegel, the Elder.

– Mr. Bruegel, are you an ›Old White Man‹?
– Me? Ho, ho. How old are you, young man?
– 50.
– And do you know the pleasures of life?
– Well. I do hope so.
– The big ones and the small ones?
– Yes, yes. Well, some of them, perhaps.
– The permanent ones and the more volatile ones? (his hands make a gesture of birds flying away)
– Y…ees.
– One for the day, and one for the night?
– …
– The oranges of Sicily and those…?
– Of Spain?
– Habsburgian oranges? I beg your pardon?
– Just an idea.
– Yes, of course, the oranges of Spain. Especially those of Spain. There is a very nice and very modern orchard nearby Valencia. And I am the Godfather of one of its trees. And every year they send me…
– Excuse me, Mr. Bruegel, a Leporello-aria of pleasures does not answer the question, and our readers would be most anxious to know…
– Shut up! Do you know, young man, that the ›Old White Man‹ is, by definition, the man of 20 up to 50? Because above 50, you have access to the fountain of youth?
– The fountain of youth? What is that? Is a certificate needed?
– Ho, ho. Yeees… and no. No, an actual certificate is not needed to enter, but an inner one. Yes. (speaking to himself, nodding) An inner certificate is needed, yes.
– Wasn’t there a Habsburgian conquistator who had embarked on a search for the fountain of youth?
– Yes, but this one was badly mistaken.
– How is that?
– Well, becase he was Habsburgian. But also, probably, because he was a man under the age of 50, and hence an ›Old White Man‹. The motto of the Habsburgian was ›Plus Ultra‹, a very bad motto. To get access to the fountain of youth, you have to drop that motto. There is not more beyond anything and the small pleasures, yes, the only ones that exist, are for free anyway. Everybody knows that, except Habsburgians perhaps.
– Dropping the motto? For political reasons?
– No, for philosophical ones.
– I don’t quite believe that, but what about the oranges?
– Those of Sicily?
– No, those of Spain. And can’t one be an ›Old White Man‹ above 50?
– Yes, indeed, you can (especially, if you are a Habsburgian). But you don’t have to.
– But what if there was a real fountain of youth? How do you know that there is no one (plus ultra)? And if you know that there is no one, why did you depict one in one of your works?
– A very Habsburgian question. No, there is none. And I did depict one because I did like a certain story. About a man who had to act as the guardian of a fountain of youth, a story about a gatekeeper.
– To be honest, Mr. Bruegel, Ponce de Leon did not set out on a search for the fountain of youth. It is just a legend. Anti-Habsburgian propaganda, one might say.
– How do you know? Have you been with him? Was it just a search for gold?
– Well, I would be a very ›Old White Man‹, if I had been with him. But the fountain of youth is interesting. The motif has been on a Swiss banknote, a 500 francs note that was emitted in 1957 (the banknote itself was a Spanish invention).
–See, very Habsburgian. And very Habsburgian you have become.
– To be honest, Mr. Bruegel, isn’t there a Habsburgian also dwelling in you? Perhaps you do not know your inner Habsburgian at all? You depict the world as greedy and ambitious, but did’t you seek to sell as many paintings as possible?
– As necessary, young man, as necessary. (grasping an orange) But did I conquer the world with that?

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