The Beggars or The Cripples is an oil-on-panel by the Netherlandish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in 1568. It is now in the Louvre, in Paris. Its also is the only painting by Bruegel in the Louvre, received as a gift in 1892.
Measuring 18.5 cm × 21.5 cm (7.3 in × 8.5 in), it is among Bruegel's smallest known surviving works. The composition depicts five physically impaired figures on crutches, navigated across a sunlit courtyard surrounded by red-brick walls. The figures are adorned with distinctive headpieces that symbolize key strata of contemporary feudal society: a king's crown, a soldier's helmet, a peasant's cap, a bishop's mitre, and a burgher's beret. Attached to their garments are foxtails, a prevalent 16th-century motif traditionally associated with deceit, hypocrisy, and social outcast status. In the background, a woman wearing a traditional apron walks away carrying an alms bowl, seemingly indifferent or retreating from the scene.
Art historians interpret the work through multiple lenses: as a stark, realistic observation of physical disability in the early modern Netherlands, and as a complex satirical allegory directed at the political and religious turmoil under Spanish rule during the Dutch Revolt.
History Attempts have been made to interpret the picture of five disabled people and a beggar-woman as an allusion to a historical event: the badger's tails, or foxes' tails, on their clothes might refer to the Gueux, a rebel party formed against the government of Philip II of Spain and Granvelle; but these also occur in Bruegel's The Fight Between Carnival and Lent in Vienna, dated 1559. Still, the beggars are not quite ordinary beggars, as they wear carnival headgear representing various classes of society: a cardboard crown (the king), a paper shako (the soldier), a beret (the bourgeois), a cap (the peasant), and a mitre (the bishop). The work clearly has some satirical meaning, which has so far eluded interpretation. Perhaps physical imperfections are meant to symbolise moral decrepitude, which can affect all men irrespective of class.V. Barker, Pieter Bruegel the elder: A study of his paintings, Arts Publishing Corp. (1926); see also W. S. Gibson, Bruegel, Thames & Hudson Ltd (1977).
On the back of the painting are two inscriptions which seem to date from the 16th century. One is in Flemish, and in a very fragmentary state;Reconstructed by the Louvre as "Cripples, take heart, and may your affairs prosper.", cf. Louvre webpage the other is in Latin and records the admiration some humanist felt for Bruegel, whose art surpasses Nature itself.R. H. Marijnissen, Bruegel, tout l'oeuvre peint et dessiné, Éditions Albin Michel (1988), pp. 354-358
The painting dates from the end of Bruegel's career, when he showed a keener interest in the natural world. Tiny though it is, the landscape seen through the opening is bathed in a delicate light which simmers like dew on the foliage.
Description
On the back of the painting is written:
What nature lacks, is lacking in our art, So great was the grace accorded to our painter. Here nature, expressed in painted forms, is astonished To see through these cripples that Bruegel is her equal.
Analysis
Modern eyes may be inclined to conclude that Bruegel intended to invoke sympathy for the plight of the disabled figures, but from a historical perspective this is unlikely. Europeans of Bruegel's time gave little regard to beggars, and the painting provides hints that Bruegel shared this denigration: the figures are outside the town walls and are posed in such ways as to provoke contempt and amusement. The foxes' tails on some of the figures was a symbol at the time of ridicule in political caricature and real life. The woman behind them bears an empty bowl and may appear to be ignoring the beggars.
See also List of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
References
Works cited
External links
The Beggars at the Louvre 99 works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder Complete list of paintings which includes all of the 100 proverbs from the painting, with explanation (in French). Creativity Brueghel laid the foundation of the Netherlands School
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes material on The Beggars (see Crippled Beggars)