AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

Pictures at an exhibition, sort of, as mathematician and SF writer Rucker (Spaceland, p. 778, etc.) tells the life of the great Flemish painter.

A true lowlander, born in Holland and raised in Antwerp, Bruegel traveled extensively throughout Europe in pursuit of training and work. Here, we follow his story from 1552 to 1569, in 16 chapters that organize themselves around 16 of the master’s best-known paintings. Thus, in “Mountain Landscape,” the painter and his faithful friend and colleague Martin De Vos have finished their apprenticeships and are traveling to Italy to seek their fortune as artists—though Bruegel has to spend the proceeds of his first sale to rescue Martin from a jealous husband. In Rome (“Tower of Babel”), Martin is at once enchanted and nauseated by the city’s beauty and venality. He has the good fortune to make friends with Abraham Ortelius, a fellow lowlander who helps him establish his reputation by introducing him to prominent Roman churchmen. After several years in Italy, Bruegel returns to Antwerp, where he spends the remainder of his life. Antwerp is quiet and backward compared to Rome, but even there Bruegel has to contend with politics at every stage of the game, currying favor with one prince or another to secure commissions and patronage—and taking his revenge as best he can when he’s thwarted. When Cardinal Granvelle, the Archbishop of Antwerp, discovers that Bruegel has made a drawing of Satan in his likeness, he nearly has the painter thrown into jail and has his servant (an American Indian named Williblad Cheroo) seduce Bruegel’s fiancée, Anja. Eventually, however, Bruegel is able to establish himself well enough that he can marry Anja, settle down to family life, and continue painting (“The Magpie on the Gallows”) right up to his death.

A lively and well-narrated tale that will appeal to Bruegel fans and may awaken newcomers to an interest in his work.