'THE FALL OF THE REBEL ANGELS'

FOREWORD

The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder is one of the masterpieces at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.

The Royal Museums acquired the painting in 1846 thinking it was the work of his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

The work was then attributed to Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) until 1898 when the date and signature "MDLXII / Brvegel" were found in the bottom left-hand corner, hidden by the frame.

Thus the painting was finally attributed to its legitimate creator, Bruegel the Elder.

CHAPTER 1. Iconography & composition

The work details the first confrontation between Good and Evil, even before the Fall of Man, when the most powerful angel, Lucifer (or "light-bearer") turns upon the divine authority. Following this, he is chased from heaven by Archangel Michael upon God's orders, bringing about the fall of the other rebel angels.

When they fall, the rebel angels are transformed into demons and are condemned to the pits of darkness.

The painting's surface is horizontally divided into two roughly even halves: the heavens take up the upper part of the work, whilst hell is represented below.

The light hues of the heavens contrast with the rich, sombre tones of hell, where ochres and warm shades of brown blend together.

The composition as a whole, due both to the subject and the painter's artistic choices, reinforces the idea of the fight between Good and Evil – a recurring theme in the works of Bruegel the Elder.

At the centre of the dramatic and tumultuous composition appears Archangel Michael. Wings spread and wearing a shiny gold armour, his face is a picture of calm whilst his cape, as if suspended in mid-air, forms a magnificent drape.

He holds a shield upon which we can make out a red Latin cross on a white background – a symbol of the Resurrection.

The Archangel's right foot rests on the stomach of the seven-headed monster described in Apocalypse (12:7-23), giving him a moment of relative stability.

Tine L. Meganck, post-Doctoral research fellow at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, reads the passage about the fight between Michael and the dragon, taken from the Apocalypse:

"And there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

(Apocalypse 12:7)

The presence of this Apocalyptic monster shows Bruegel's originality as he brings together two biblical stories, one from the beginning of time and the other from the end.

Down the centuries, the stories of Lucifer and the Apocalyptic monster have become merged.
This iconographic ambiguity is not a coincidence as, by referring to these two stories, Bruegel shows the omnipresence of the fight between Good and Evil, and one of its essential components, Pride.

In this painting, Bruegel brings together time and space in one all-encompassing image.

Brandishing his sword above his head, Saint Michael slays the Apocalyptic dragon before hurling him and the fallen angels to the depths of hell.

The dragon's contorted movement, with his belly to the sky and seven heads thrown back, already hints at what is to come.

In the background, an infernal spiral of demonic people pours down.

CHAPTER 2

Lucifer and the dragon are accompanied by rebel angels who, as they fall, transform into demons and other hybrid monsters with Boschesque peculiarities – such as the figure with the hat to the right of Archangel Michael.

The artist has also left numerous humorous hints in his work.

In particular, in the bottom left-hand corner, just above Bruegel's signature.
Here we can see a devil, half-human, half-lizard, with his head lowered to bite his calf and showing his rear-end to the viewer, a sign of contempt.

"ARTIFICIALIA"


These monstrous creatures are composed not only of naturalia but also of artificialia (man-made objects).

The detailed representation shows the artist's in-depth knowledge of this type of collectable object. He equips various fallen angels with artificial attributes such as scientific or musical instruments, arms and armour, ethnographic objects and even works of art.

One of them, for example, is equipped with a sort of breastplate made from a sundial. The two parts of the armour are linked by a leather strap.

Regarding the musical instruments, besides the celestial trumpets played by the angels helping Michael, it is possible to make out a hurdy-gurdy or vielle à roue, a popular instrument at the time.

The instrument's sound box makes up the body of one of the painting's hybrid monsters. Its head and hands are taken from a lobster.

The creature is hiding the body of another fallen angel whose head appears near the creature's flank. The fallen angel, whose cheeks are still rosy, is blowing a trumpet.

Among the artificialia, it is also possible to distinguish a turban adorning the head of one of the monsters.

Set against a celestial light blue background, the faithful angels appear robed in white. They are armed with swords or divine trumpets whose music aims to encourage the fighters.

Far away, some angels are already proclaiming victory with their horns, suggesting a positive result from the battle.

CHAPTER 3

At the time, Margaret of Parma was the Regent of the Netherlands. She was advised by the powerful Cardinal de Granvelle. History remembers Granvelle as a hated politician, but he was also a great patron, hosting artists in his palace, and a great collector of artificialia and naturalia, the type of enthusiast that Bruegel targeted. He owned at least one more of Bruegel's works. In 1561, Granvelle was named Archbishop of Malines. This position led to a power struggle with the local nobility, including the young William of Orange. Whilst Orange himself was not a great collector, he had inherited one of the Flemish master's works, which was the subject of great envy: Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. It was one of these paintings that Bruegel tried to surpass in The Fall of the Rebel Angels.

In 1562, Orange made his Brussels palace the home of the "League against Granvelle". As for Granvelle, he reported Orange's growing disobedience to the King. From a theatre performance organised that same year, we can deduce that the population also felt that tensions had reached a peak. Rhetoricians from Brussels organised a competition on the issue of "How to maintain peace in these countries". Different participants mentioned Lucifer's disobedience as a negative example; pride led to discord and disorder, which were a threat to peace. Bruegel was familiar with the culture of both the rhetoricians and the court collectors. We can therefore ask the question as to whether, by emulating Bosch – particularly with The Garden of Earthly Delights in Orange's possession – Bruegel was targeting the collector Granvelle or his fight for power.

In Bruegel’s work, the representations of a world led to apocalypse by the madness of men, were truly visionary as, in 1562, the Netherlands was yet to see the true disaster of war.

With the events which would follow only four years later with the outbreak of the Iconoclastic Crisis of 1566 and the following rebellion, the warning painted by Bruegel – pride comes before a fall – became a painful reality.