Department of Art History

The so-called Netherlandish Proverbs of Pieter Bruegel the Elder has long been recognized as something of a compendium. Central to that recognition is the idea that contemporaneous viewers were expected to generate intelligent and persuasive interpretations of the painting in the company of their peers. This essay explores the social and intellectual risks involved in producing such interpretations, which viewers likely had to do on the fly. Specifically, one wonders what place error had in that process. This essay offers a preliminary set of thoughts about error and its place in a culture invested in the playful consumption of pictures