Original subtitles

One of the first known paintings of deep winter is Census at Bethlehem.

Its artist, Peter Bruegel, made many of the images

which have created our vision of the winter landscape.

But it is this one which defines the white Christmas.

This is the perfect Christmas card scene,

and I think Bruegel invented part of our idea of Christmas.

He certainly invented snowscapes in art.

Census at Bethlehem tells the story of the prelude to the nativity,

at the heart of the Christmas story.

Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem on the eve of the birth of Christ.

Within this very prosaic, very dumpy kind of world

of, you know, tired, cold, overweight people,

something is about to happen

which is both invisible and world-changing.

This is much more than just a pretty Christmas scene.

It's also a disguised but detailed portrait

of a country under the heel of a foreign oppressor.

The effects of statehood

and of the sort of terrorism of the state

is something which Bruegel lived through.

The story of the Census of Bethlehem

is about authority, about regulation,

about power, about the possibility of violence.

Given the population movements, refugee problems,

the mass violence in the low countries in Bruegel's time,

I suppose the best analogy we might think of now

is it's as if somebody were painting a scene

in Darfur or southern Sudan.

Census at Bethlehem is an extraordinarily modern painting,

dealing with contemporary subjects like displaced people,

refugees, and terrible hardship.

If ever a picture were worth a thousand words,

it's this intricate study of 16th-century life,

a life still led in many places all over the world.

The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brussels

is an outstanding showpiece of northern European art.

A masterpiece hangs on every wall.

But even here, one painting seems to stand out.

It is Census at Bethlehem,

made in 1566 by Peter Bruegel the Elder.

Every section of the painting is crammed with detail.

Bright red highlights lead the eye across its surface,

from a small group killing a pig,

to huddled walkers on the ice,

past children having a snowball fight,

and up to the crimson-setting sun on the horizon.

A figure emerges from a hut

while children play on a frozen lake,

and a woman vainly plies a broom in the snow.

In the foreground of the picture,

a crowd moves across the painting from right to left,

past a woman on a donkey,

towards a building where a teeming throng

is already queuing up

and seems to be handing over money.

Everywhere you look, a new scene emerges.

What I like about old Bruegel is that there's always so much going on,

and there's always so much to look at.

What's really important, I think,

is all of the people become sort of a series of dots

that take over the canvas.

It looks like a cross-section of life

where there's a purpose of being.

People have gone to register,

but children being children

always go off and find somewhere to play,

and they've found the ice.

It certainly gives you the impression of cold,

but of course there wouldn't have ever been any snow in Bethlehem.

It's not curious.

The New Testament story is familiar.

The scene takes its inspiration

from the passage in St Luke's Gospel,

describing Joseph's return to his home city

to pay tax to the Holy Roman Emperor.

There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus

that all the world should be taxed,

everyone into his own city.

And Joseph also went unto Judea,

unto the city of David,

which is called Bethlehem,

to be taxed with Mary,

his espoused wife,

being great with child.

One of the very interesting things

that St Luke does in his Gospel

is to try and locate the events of Jesus' life

against a big global background,

world politics, you might say.

So at the beginning of his story of the actual nativity,

he locates this against the background

of Augustus being emperor

and a universal census in the Roman Empire.

Everyone has to go to their place of origin

to register for taxation.

The very choice of subject matter

for the painting was novel,

even groundbreaking.

Artists had been more accustomed

to depicting the big moments

like the nativity itself,

the adoration of the magi,

or the great episodes

from the trial and crucifixion of Christ.

To choose such a quiet moment of the story

before anything significant has happened

would have raised a few eyebrows.

But from the outset,

Peter Bruegel was an artist

who wasn't afraid to follow his own path.

Little is known about his origins,

but his original style, it seems,

did grow from an awareness

of conventional painting.

He began his training as an artist

around 1545 when he was in his early 20s.

When he finished his apprenticeship

six years later,

he joined the artists' union,

the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp,

becoming a fully-fledged master.

Bruegel's name in this register

is the earliest written record

that remains of the artist.

Bruegel entered the Guild as a master,

so that means that he did have

certain aspirations,

that he wanted to become independent

and sell his own work.

So one could say,

in the life of a painter,

that it is a very important moment.

It's the moment where your life

as a painter really starts.

A year after becoming a master artist,

Bruegel took a journey

that would change his destiny

and that of his art.

Like many northern painters

before him and after,

he travelled across Europe

and deep into Italy

to study the Renaissance artists.

But Bruegel's reaction to Italy

and the great masters of the Renaissance

was very different from that of his fellows,

unique to him.

We do know that he clearly

had a very stubborn, strong character

and a very strong sense of himself

as a Flemish artist.

And he certainly wasn't just going

to copy the Italians.

There's no great evidence

that Bruegel went round

to be gobsmacked

by the Sistine ceiling.

I mean, he may have not even bothered.

He was a fully formed,

very competent artist

with his own language.

And in a sense,

he might have been rebelling

against the Italianate.

Bruegel's trip was to last two years.

But there's little evidence

that the great Italians

of whatever school

made any impression

on him whatsoever.

Botticelli may have bored him.

The luxuriant Raphael

must have passed him by.

Bruegel set out on his journey

as a Flemish painter

and he came back as one,

unmoved by the melodramatic magnificence

of the Italian masters.

But something at the time

did make a huge impact on him.

It was the journey home.

On his way back to Antwerp

from Rome,

Bruegel took a detour

through the Alps.

To a man from the flatlands

of Flanders,

this mountainous,

snow-covered landscape

was simply stunning.

As a contemporary chronicler noted,

It was said of him,

while he visited the Alps,

he had swallowed

the mountains and cliffs

and upon coming home,

he had spit them forth

upon his canvas and panels.

So remarkably was he able

to follow these

and other works from nature.

Bruegel's Alpine journey

yielded sketches and notes

which he later converted

into drawings and prints.

It also retrained his eye

and gave him

a new feeling for space.

Instead of learning

from the art

of the Italian painters,

he learned about the nature

that intervenes

between his hometown

in Antwerp

and the towns he visits.

So even there,

where you'd expect him

to look at and imitate art,

he's looking at imitating

and really mastering nature.

He returns as this traveler

with this repertoire

of how to paint,

these immense views.

Bruegel's roundabout route

home from the high peaks

of the Alps

to the lowlands

of Flanders

must have added

a few weeks

to his journey,

but its impact

would last a lifetime.

From this moment on,

nature and man's relationship

to it

was to fascinate Bruegel.

When he finally got back

to Antwerp

in about 1555,

his career as an artist

took off.

His drawings

for mass-produced prints

and landscapes

soon became his obsession

and his trademark.

It was a group

of 12 etchings

called the Large Landscapes

that first made Bruegel famous.

There's no doubt

that printmaking

and particularly

the landscape prints

were very important

in launching

the kind of Bruegel image,

the high point of view,

lots of detail.

Printmaking

was an activity

very much

intended

to appeal

to collectors.

You needed prints

to have a culture

of collecting

because you need

tons of images

to have a whole world

of people out there

collecting your stuff.

Bruegel's prints

sold hot off the press

and the market

was hungry for more.

But the artist

had more ambitious work

in mind.

Within a year

of his Italian trip

he turned from etching

and began to paint.

Landscape

would feature heavily

in his work

at a time

when it was still used

as a fragmentary

background subject

by other painters.

Yet his panoramas

were far from empty.

He began to develop

a particular point of view

taking stories

like the census

but including them

as almost incidental happenings

within huge tracts

of land.

In landscape

with Christ

appearing to his disciples

the figure in the

left-hand foreground

is dominated

by the scenery.

In landscape

with the fall

of Icarus

all that we see

of that over-ambitious

youth

is a leg and a half

lost in a vast view

of sea and shore.

Here in landscape

with the flight

into Egypt

are Mary and Joseph.

Close to the figures

painted three years later

in the village scene

of census at Bethlehem.

The Italians

would have made

any of these events

the melodramatic

centre subjects

of their painting.

The focus of Italian art

was always unambiguous.

The major figures

occupying centre stage

dramatically lit

and precisely modelled.

They were usually set

in imagined antiquity

with no reference

to contemporary events.

but the census at Bethlehem

rejects the Italian

approach completely.

The Holy Family

are absorbed

into the mundane world

of 16th century Flanders

and yet also

at the centre

of the most

extraordinary evening.

It's a sort of

sophisticated

where's Wally game.

The significant events

don't come with

a label saying

significant event

and a great big arrow

from the sky

pointing towards it

and people might

vaguely notice

in this picture

oh there's an old man

and a young woman

who's clearly going

to have a baby

any moment.

If you can't tell

in advance

where the significant

scenes are

who the significant

people are

well then you've got

to attend very

very hard to everybody

because somehow

it all weaves together

and the least likely

person may seem

to be significant.

The main incident

is lost within

a larger social epic

and he really does

seem to want

to portray

a society.

He wants to portray

the world

in which people lived

and he wants to portray

it as a world

that is as

a very broad canvas

an epic canvas.

The painting

was an accurate

depiction of a

Flemish village

in other ways.

It portrays

a political repression

by a foreign power

and also a short period

when the weather

went wild.

The winter

before census

was painted

was the coldest

and snowiest

for over a century.

As Peter Bruegel

toiled away

in his studio

at 132 Rout

in Brussels

memories of that

cruel winter

would have been

fresh indeed.

The winter

of 1564-5

is one of the

seven coldest

winters in Holland

since 1250

and the only real

winter that's

similar to that

was in 1962-3.

Probably started

in November

and would have gone

right through to March.

It would have been

temperatures at night

down to below

minus 20

and maybe a lot

of daytime temperatures

that failed to reach

freezing point.

People burnt

everything they could

to get warm.

For example,

they burnt furniture,

they burnt parts

and bits of their

houses,

trees,

gallows even,

anything they could

lay their hands on.

There is a chronicle

which exists

and which started

in 1564

and which was

actually being

written because

somebody,

the writer,

Hodevaart van Haaght,

an image maker

of 18 years

wondered

at this strange weather.

On the 27th day

of December,

before the wharves

in Antwerp,

a large ice floe

was stuck.

Many people

walked on it

and it froze

closed like

a silent river

in such a way

that one could

nearly roll barrels

to Flanders

as well as

other wares

which were hauled

along on sleds.

Bruegel,

freezing in his

Brussels studio,

used the snow

as inspiration

for his winter

landscapes.

He painted

snow scenes

five times

after the terrible

winter of 1565

including his

much-loved

Hunters in the Snow.

The great census

at Bethlehem

emerged a year later.

No one had really

painted a wholeheartedly

snowy landscape

before.

There's a fresco

of January

in Trent in Italy

painted in 1405

by an unknown artist

showing a snowball

fight.

Then there was

a book of hours

by the Lindbergh

brothers painted

around 1408

with a picture

for February

of a snowy scene.

But in both

of these

the snow

is just a flat

white backdrop.

In census

at Bethlehem

snowfall

takes center stage.

Bruegel's

the world's greatest

painter of snow

and it's something

he seems to have

introduced into

Western art

all by himself.

And after him

there was a whole

tradition in Dutch art

of painting snowscapes

and ice fairs

and it all

goes back to Bruegel.

The secret of the snow

effects in census

at Bethlehem

began at the very

earliest stage

of preparation.

First layers of

chalk and glue

were applied

to an oak panel.

This was then

smoothed down

using the dried

stalks of the

plant mare's tail.

Then

great sweeping

strokes of lead

white paint

were brushed on.

This underlayer

was revolutionary.

Most artists

used an undercoat

of an umber

or ochre color

but in census

the undercoat

is brilliant white.

This priming

layer of lead paint

becomes perfectly

clear when the

painting is x-rayed.

We clearly see

the priming layer

which is lead

white based

and is picked up

in the x-ray

all over the

surface of the

painting.

This of course

is the layer

that's responsible

for the luminosity

of the scene.

We also see

down here

in the foreground

a final layer

of snow paint

which is also

lead white based

which gives the

impression of

freshly fallen snow.

white paint

is the key note

to the painting.

He used

paint in different

ways

particularly

to simulate

different textures

so you get

the texture

of freshly fallen

snow

scuffed snow

rolled snowballs.

He does give

this wonderful

impression

impression of

a bitterly

cold atmosphere.

Every detail

was planned

so that as few

layers of paint

as possible

would go onto

the white ground.

Key elements

of the scene

were then brushed

in like the lake

in the lower

right hand corner

but Bruegel

was careful

to paint around

the figures

on its surface

so that they

would remain

brighter than

the dark grey

of the lake.

It's also

his use of colour

that makes

the painting

look so cold.

He's kept

a uniform

brownish tones

for the background

where you see colour

it tends to be

confined to

brightly patterned

draperies

in the foreground

but he's used

colour very

sparingly.

It's an artifice

this painting.

It is something

we think is real

but in fact

it's all been

carefully constructed

so we have an

impression of cool

snow.

There really is

this sense

that in the

next frame

of the movie

the figures

will move on

one figure

will fall

on the ice

a snowball

will be thrown

a man will

jump up

in surprise

so it really

is cinematographic

I would say.

Census

was worked

very quickly

and precisely

the artist

didn't wait

for paint layers

to dry

but would paint

wet in wet.

Bruegel

is somebody

whose painting

technique

demands

swiftness

because the

thinness

of the

application

of paint

the visibility

of the brush

work

the way

that the eyes

and mouth

and hair

is sketched

means that

the moment

he would

slow down

the picture

would itself

fall apart.

All the figures

express vivid

gesture or movement

with a minimum

of brush strokes.

There's one

particular scene

in the centre

where you see

a little boy

pushing a girl

over

and she's

got her hands

out to save

herself.

We can understand

exactly what's

going on.

The finishing touches

were then added.

Icicles on the

little hut

splattered snow

on a jacket

and for an

almost literal

minded touch

blobs of white

paint for snowballs

which actually stick

out from the

surface.

Besides the

winter weather

the census

the census

also does

justice

to the

other great

interest

Bruegel

maintained

throughout

his life

and work

a fascination

with people

ordinary people

people in

all their

rough

peculiar

humanity.

He's a

people person

and he's

the greatest

people person

among painters.

He's a great

landscape painter

but he's not

interested in

landscape by

itself very much.

I mean he could

draw empty

landscapes but

there's always

something going on.

In census

life does go on

despite obvious

and less

visible

hardships.

Many people

are bent

under the

weight of

a heavy

load

and they

are all

thickly

dressed.

A crowd

huddles around

a little fire

in the distance

trying to keep

warm.

A man

struggles to

carry a

log.

Starvation

is a fact

of life.

On the inn

wall there

is a nesting

box put up

by people

hoping to

steal eggs

and in the

doorway of the

inn

two pigs

are being

slaughtered

for their

much-needed

meat.

Everybody's

obviously

very glad

to get the

food that's

been given

by the

census takers.

You sign up

for the

census you

get to eat

some meat

and perhaps

these people

hadn't eaten

meat for quite

some time.

They'd all

been on a

difficult

journey too

of course

to get

to Bethlehem.

Even

the quaint

little hut

on the right

of the

picture reflects

the harsh

realities of

16th century

Flanders.

There is a

begging bowl

outside it,

a cross

on its roof.

Evidently the

house has been

stricken by

leprosy which

was endemic

at the time.

In the doorway

stands a man

holding clappers

to warn people

that he is

infected.

Folklorists

for the last

hundred years

have been going

to his paintings

as source.

Not only are

they using

their folklore

books to

figure out

what Bruegel

actually is

painting,

but they use

Bruegel's

painting in order

to write

their folklore

books.

Censors at

Bethlehem

is a record

of playtime

too.

It is full

of romping

children,

making mischief

and reveling

in the

transformed

landscape.

I think

he's got

a kind

of unillusioned

look at

people.

This is

how it is.

The children

that he often

depicts,

they're not

sentimentalised

in the least.

They're little

brats and

they're doing

brattish things.

No, he's not

in the least

bit starry-eyed

about human

beings.

Bruegel's

peasants

were very

different

from the

suave

inhabitants

of the

Italian

Renaissance

masterworks.

Italian

fashion,

classically

inspired,

recommended

beautiful

bodies.

If you

were a great

painter,

what you

had to

master

is the

nude

and

you

had to

master

the

vocabulary

of

representing

the

nude,

if you

think

about

Bruegel's

art,

the ultimate

Bruegel figure

is a

human figure

clothed

and clothed

in the

least elaborate,

least idealised

way, namely

in peasant

clothing.

You very rarely

see the

faces and

when you do

see the

faces,

sure,

sometimes

it is

kind

there's

a sense

of something

going on

where they're

all sort

of running

around like

ants almost.

In fact,

the very

interesting

event about

Bruegel,

he gives

his much

interest

to the

birds

pecking

away in

one corner

as he

will to

little

people.

There's

a sense

that humanity

has somehow

become part

of the

animal kingdom.

The humanity

in this

scene

includes

this

tired

man

carrying

a saw

and a

basket

of tools

and an

even

more

exhausted

woman

sitting

on the

donkey

her

husband

is

leading.

They

trudge

towards

the

window

at which

they

must

pay

their

taxes.

But there's

another purpose

in burying

the central

figures in

the painting.

It is

making a

point about

a great

injustice

the

who approach

the inn

to pay

their

taxes

they

do

so

as

Netherlanders

and they

pay

not

unto

Caesar

but

unto

Philip

II

of

Spain.

The citizens

of Flanders

at this

time

were paying

taxes

into the

coffers

of the

Habsburg

Emperor

Philip

II.

His coat

of arms

is clear

on the

side

of

he

had

engaged

in

war

with

France

and

needed

to

pay

for

it

and

the

first

place

he

looked

to

was

Flanders.

The

Netherlands

was

to a

large

extent

a

foreign

country

to

him.

Now

that

didn't

mean

he

neglected

it.

The

Netherlands

was

one

of

the

richest

parts

of

his

empire.

It

The

Netherlands

had

long

been

identified

as

a

cash

cow.

For

16th

century

artists

the

tax

collector

was

a

common

theme

at

a

time

when

citizens

felt

they

were

far

too

heavily

burdened.

The

census

was thus

a

relevant

cleverly

chosen

subject

from

the

Bible.

Choosing

a religious

subject

for a

painting

was

in

itself

a

comment

on

the

times.

Flanders

had

been

in

religious

turmoil

for

ten

years.

The

Spanish

Philip

II

was

a

committed

Catholic

bent

on

stamping

out

the

Protestant

Reformation.

The

Netherlands

already

had

a

fierce

persecution

of

heresy.

Of

all

the

parts

of

Europe

more

people

were

executed

for

heresy

in

the

Netherlands

than

anywhere

else.

There

were

a

number

of

very

high

profile

executions.

The

possession

of

Lutheran

books

was

banned.

There

was a

very

high

degree

of

fear.

Gallows

were a

part of

the

landscape

of

the

times

and

Bruegel

often

painted

them.

Flanders

was an

occupied

region

and

this

is

subtly

reflected

in

census

at

Bethlehem.

In

the

far

distance

lingering

by

a

makeshift

inn

some

soldiers

are

holding

long

Spanish

style

lances.

If

you look

into

this

frozen

landscape

this

frozen

village

in

the

middle

distance

there

are

some

soldiers

with

lances

gathered

together

seemingly

innocently

but if you look at some of Bruegel's pictures you realise there's never anything

particularly in a sense about soldiers in Bruegel he has a deep horror of war

It would be impossible I think to go on any journey in the Low Countries at that time without being aware of soldiers of the threat of coercion around the corner the memory of torture and execution that's the world people live in

A painting known as the

A painting known as the companion to the census at Bethlehem shows the bloody reality of religious suppression in a forthright way

It is the massacre of the innocents which was painted around the same time as the census

It reflects the bible story of King Herod's decree that all male children under the age of two should be slaughtered

Soldiers are killing children while their distraught parents look on powerless to intervene

With the massacre of the innocents Bruegel is able to represent state terror in the most extreme and plausible way

This is not a painting by somebody who tries to come up with what it might look like

But rather somebody who may have witnessed and certainly could have witnessed that kind of violence against villages

There is no doubt that the massacre of the innocents reported on horrific contemporary events

It's not an exaggeration and it's not anachronistic to say that Bruegel protests against war

I don't think you can interpret it as paintings in any other way

In its quieter way the census is just as political

Events of 1566 meant that Bruegel was well advised to hide his central subject

By August that year the Protestants were smashing the religious art in Catholic churches

Iconoclasm saw widespread destruction in churches across Flanders

Although census at Bethlehem was painted for an unknown private patron

It was a sign of the times that the religious content of the painting was so underplayed

The resurgence of Protestantism was having a big impact on the populace in other ways

Many people who had fled the country fearing for their lives under Philip II's reign of terror

Were finally returning to Flanders after years of exile

The biblical subject of census at Bethlehem

Tells the story of a homecoming

The census of Bethlehem is not really a picture about taxation

If it has a contemporary resonance

It's about the dislocation of society

That has been caused by ten years of religious turmoil

By the movement of peoples

By the division of families

I suppose the best analogy we might think of now

Is it's as if somebody were painting a scene in Darfur or southern Sudan

It's that kind of unsettlement

And government suddenly deciding to do something massively inconvenient

And unsettling

And you've got to fall in

And that must have spoken to Bruegel's contemporaries

Images of the displaced and dispossessed

Are sadly commonplace today

But census is one of the earliest records of the forced movement of people

As for the painting's own movements

The early life of census at Bethlehem is shrouded in mystery

Made for its unknown patron

It disappeared from view

And yet would continue to haunt people's memories

Through the centuries

There is no record of its sale

But it was no longer in the studio

Three years after Bruegel painted it

We know this to be true

Because according to a contemporary account

Only one painting

Magpie on the Gallows

Remained in the studio

When Bruegel died

On the 5th of September 1569

He was barely 40 years old

An artist in his creative prime

The cause of his death was unknown

Peter Bruegel was buried in his home city of Brussels

In the church of Notre Dame La Chapelle

He left strict instructions for his wife

To burn certain drawings and documents

Perhaps they were so politically sensitive

That he feared they might bring trouble on his family

It seems that the job was done thoroughly

It's thought that only a small percentage of his drawings remain

His friend, the geographer Abraham Ortelius

Wrote a touching obituary for Bruegel

Suggesting that nature had struck him down at such a young age

Because she feared that she would be held up in contempt

Because of his artistic and talented skills at imitation

Death made Bruegel's paintings even more disillusioned

Desirable

The new Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II

Became the most passionate collector

Of what was a fairly small body of work

Bruegel made only 40 paintings

Or thereabouts during his lifetime

So already they were very rare

And not seen by many people

And very expensive

Now the prices soared

After he died

If Bruegel was the master at imitating nature

One of his sons, Peter Bruegel the Younger

Was equally obsessed with imitating his father

With no ideas of his own

And little talent to speak of

Peter Bruegel the Younger

Hatched a plan to cash in on his father's fame

And the enormous sums his paintings were going for

He copied his father's best works

Which in itself would help keep the memory

Of senses at Bethlehem alive

Peter Bruegel the Younger

Realised this gap, if you like, in the market

And started to produce the copies

On an almost industrial scale

We have vast numbers of the winter scene

With Bird Trap, for instance

There's over 100

Of which 50 are considered

By Bruegel the Younger's studio

It's an extraordinary phenomenon

And there was a huge demand for copies

Because they were getting the artist's invention

That's what they wanted

It was a bit like buying an Andy Warhol print in some ways

But, you know, you could just put it up

And everyone knew you had a Bruegel in the house

And everyone was happy

When it came to the great census

At least 13 copies were made

By a man who is sometimes jokingly referred to

In art circles today

As Peter the photocopier

There was a sense that you could just

Get these things off the production line

And, um

In a way, I suppose

We're in an age where that makes more sense

The sort of colour photocopy

Or pronto print or whatever

Except, of course, he didn't have a photocopier

Peter Jr. used a different technique

Christina Curry has done intensive research

To show how he did it

He was only four or five years old

When his father died

And so we have to assume

That he either saw the paintings

Or inherited from his father's studio

Drawings, preparatory drawings

Studies and detailed sketches

Of his father's works

Studying the copies revealed

Something very interesting

They were made using a technique

Called pouncing

Pouncing is an ingenious way

Of copying an original drawing

By pricking along its outline

With a needle

This outline is the template

Which can be used to make copies

Over and over again

It is a faithful version

Of the original drawing

Made up of tiny holes

Rubbing a pouch of black chalk dust

Across the pricked holes

Leaves a series of dots

On the painting surface

And joining up the dots

Gives you an accurate copy

Of the original drawing

I found that the pouncing method

Was far more natural

And easy to carry out

Than tracing

For tracing

You can't see

The drawing you're actually doing

So you're working blind

Whereas pouncing

Is very easy to join up the dots

Any amateur can do it

And in fact it's highly likely

That Bruegel delegated this task

To young assistants

Examining the underdrawing

And paint layers in the copies

Showed that Peter Bruegel the younger

Employed at least five other artists

In his studio

In one version of the census

I noticed that on the door

Of the leper's house

Hidden and part of the woodwork

The actual wood grain

There were a series of tiny letters

It was difficult

In fact impossible to read illegible

But when you hold a mirror up to them

They read Van Can

Which in English

Might be translated as

Potter the potter

So it's possible

That this represents

The hidden signature

Of one of the assistants

There are plenty of differences

Between the original census

And the copies

While the original is muted

And earthy

All the copies are brightly coloured

And the sun doesn't set

In any of them

The skater on the bank

And the bank of the river

Has disappeared too

Each new version of the scene

Is a slightly altered retelling

Of the story

Sometimes the copies

Act like Chinese whispers

And the original meaning

Gets lost

We have an example

For instance

In a child

Who's being pushed

Over in the snow

In the original version

The child puts her hands out

To save herself

Whereas in the

Bruegel younger paintings

The hands are upturned

As if the artist

Didn't really know

What he was doing

One just shines out

Is vibrant

Alive and working

And the other

Kind of looks

Slightly dehydrated

And that's what

You suffer always

With Peter Bruegel II

It's like getting

The football card

Of your hero

Rather than actually

Seeing him in the flesh

While the copies

Were being churned out

On demand

The whereabouts

Of the original painting

Remained a mystery

No one knows

Who owned it

A tantalising clue

Lies on the reverse

Of the panel

An impressive

But as yet

Unidentified

Coat of arms

Has been stamped

On it in red wax

There may also

Be a verbal glimpse

Of the painting

In a letter

Written in 1684

By Susanna Forhont

A member of a

Prominent art-dealing

Family from Antwerp

In it

She mentions

A painting

Brought by her brother

Which shows

Mary and Joseph

Who were on their way

To pay their taxes

Otherwise

It remained hidden

From view

Until the end

Of the 19th century

Two things

Brought it

And the artist

Who painted it

Back to prominence

Belgium became

A separate country

In 1830

And by the end

Of the 19th century

This new state

Was discovering

Its Flemish roots

Keen to celebrate

Its artistic past

The rediscovery

Of Bruegel's paintings

At the end

Of the 19th century

And the soaring

Of his reputation

Can be tied up

With renewed interest

Into peasants

And peasantry

As part of the

Flemish

Honest

Simple

Native culture

The other event

Which accelerated

Bruegel's return

To fame

Was the opening

Of the

Kunsthistorisches Museum

In Vienna

In 1891

The museum

Housed the astonishing

Art collection

Of the Holy Roman

Emperor

Rudolf II

The man who

Had dedicated

His artistic life

To assembling

The finest collection

Of Bruegel originals

In the world

When the museum

Threw open

Its doors

To the public

The Bruegel room

Amazed

All who entered it

The real heyday

Of Bruegel

Was in that

Period of rediscovery

When they said

Ah, this painter

Who we thought

Was a folk artist

Was in fact

Collected by

Rudolf II

And is in fact

As great

Or possibly greater

Than Leonardo

Michelangelo

And Raphael

This is the ultimate

Of painting

It's unlikely

That census

Ever left Belgium

Records show

That by 1892

The painting

Was in the hands

Of a private collector

From Brussels

Belgium's

National art gallery

The Musée des Beaux-Arts

Was busy

Assembling a collection

For the nation

The museum's director

Edouard Fethy

Was desperate

To acquire

Census

At Bethlehem

They already

Had an inferior

Copy by the sun

But only the original

Would do

When the painting

Went up for auction

In 1902

The museum

Seized its chance

Edouard Fethy

Determined to have

The painting

Authorised

An unprecedented

40,000 francs

To pay for it

The painting

Has been at the museum

Ever since

Growing in value

As its fame

Has spread

One of the reasons

Why Bruegel still

Has such rapport

With the early

20th century

Right throughout

Time

Is because

In a sense

He's the original

Industrial age

Painter

You know

There's all this

Kind of busy

Ant-like activity

Not clearly

Going anywhere

And we can

Immediately identify

With that

We all feel

We're just

Going to use

Those little

Cogs

Going around

In the wheel

Perhaps Bruegel

Had to wait

Until the 20th century

To be fully

Recognized

He had to wait

Until the age

Of democracy

Before being

Fully understood

When you look

At the census

At Bethlehem

You're looking

At an art

Of the people

An art

Which has a deep

Sense

That we're

All in it

Together

The painting

Spoke to a

20th century

Audience

For another

Reason

Census at Bethlehem

Made in 1566

After a decade

Of political

And religious

Turmoil

Was paid

Poetic tribute

Nearly 400

Years later

On the eve

Of the second

World War

W.H. Auden

Wrote his poem

Musée des Beaux-Arts

Which looks

At a number

Of Bruegel

Paintings

Including

Census at Bethlehem

About suffering

They were never wrong

The old masters

How well they understood

Its human position

How it takes place

While someone else

Is eating

Or opening a window

Or just walking

Dully along

How when the aged

Are reverently

Passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth

There always must be

Children who did not

Specially want it

To happen

Skating on a pond

At the edge

Of the wood

They never forgot

That even the dreadful

Martyrdom

Must run its course

He clearly

Saw something

In Bruegel

That was

Both sinister

And redemptive

Both a dark prophecy

Of what was happening

In Europe

And perhaps also

It offered a humanity

That was

Sadly lacking

Today

Interest in Bruegel

Is if anything

Stronger than ever

In the Musée des Beaux-Arts

Bruegel's great census

Hangs next to a copy

By his son

In 1990

A version of the census

By Peter the photocopier

Went for $2 million

In 2006

A copy of the procession

To Calvary

Sold for even more

$4 million

Anybody else

$4 million

$600,000

Are we all done

Last chance

Sold to you sir

Congratulations

Thank you very much

The fact that these

Paintings are poor copies

Doesn't appear

To put people off

They are keen

To buy into

The Bruegel brand

Whichever Bruegel

It may be

Only now

Beginning of the 21st century

That people are going

As excitedly after

Peter Bruegel

With seconds

As they probably did

In 1600

Modern technology

Now mass reproduces

The census

Especially as Christmas cards

But even as fridge magnets

The graphic image

Of dark figures

On a white background

Lends itself very well

To the copying process

And the meaning

Of the scene

Is constantly updated

The world today

Is a world

Where we've probably

Got more displaced

Populations

Than we've had

For centuries

Maybe ever

And the very story

Of Christmas

Though we sometimes

Forget it

Is a story

About displaced people

It's about people

On the move

It's the census

And all the

Unmanageable pressure

On ordinary provision

And ordinary resources

The story

Is a story

That ought to be

Very familiar to us

And what Bruegel does

I think in this

And in other paintings

Is to say

It's exactly this world

No illusions

Census at Bethlehem

Is an inexhaustible work of art

Full of people

Doing matter-of-fact things

For all sorts of reasons

We can imagine

Every one of these

Shivering ordinary mortals

Thinking

What's it all about?

The Christian answer

To that question

Is among them

If they only knew

And at the very centre

Of their village life

Ignored by all

Is the wheel of fortune

A symbol as old

As any religion

Is the wild

The Christian

The Christian