Around the same time as the Peasant
Wedding, Bruegel also painted an expressly religious painting called the
Parable of the Blind, an allegorical painting showing five blind beggars
walking in a line toward a pit, where the sixth beggar has already fallen.
The painting alludes to the
biblical parable by using symbolism. The
pathway represents the road to eternal suffering, at the end of which lies a
ditch (Hell). The blind follow their
blind guide and are doomed to make the same error when he falls into the
pit. A church is seen in the distance,
the spire framed by two trees, but the blind have gone their own way. The second man even wears a cross necklace,
but he will fall too (not even the pious can save themselves).
Bruegel painted each of the blind
men accurately for a more lifelike appearance—each of their faces communicates
a different emotion, from confusion to fear.
Bruegel also made a study of vision impairments before painting this,
and you'll notice that each man in the Parable of the Blind has a specific form
of blindness. He wanted to paint it as
accurately and realistically as possible.
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