I love 17th and C18th art that made commentary on social issues in the communities where the artists lived. William Hogarth (1697-1764), for example, documented the seamy side of life in England, firing off his artistic bullets against corrupt politicians, negligent mothers, sleazy men who seduced gullible young women and alcoholics. In his satires, he swore that the political and social references were real but that the faces did not refer to anyone in particular.
Even the well heeled gentlemen in their private club (see the painting A Midnight Modern Conversation below) were falling apart under the influence of alcohol. Hogarth was not displaying the “imperturbable grace and goodness of an England built on land and trade”, but more subversively the vomit-inducing excess of a nation addicted to booze.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1565-1638), born in Brussels and educated in Antwerp, was not known as a satirist and political commentator. So what do we make of his painting The Village Lawyer, painted in 1615? According to the European Fine Art Fair notes, the village lawyer was depicted as smugly reading petitions in his chaotic office. In the meantime, the peasants were queuing up to pay their fees with farm produce in lieu of cold, hard cash.
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Even the well heeled gentlemen in their private club (see the painting A Midnight Modern Conversation below) were falling apart under the influence of alcohol. Hogarth was not displaying the “imperturbable grace and goodness of an England built on land and trade”, but more subversively the vomit-inducing excess of a nation addicted to booze.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1565-1638), born in Brussels and educated in Antwerp, was not known as a satirist and political commentator. So what do we make of his painting The Village Lawyer, painted in 1615? According to the European Fine Art Fair notes, the village lawyer was depicted as smugly reading petitions in his chaotic office. In the meantime, the peasants were queuing up to pay their fees with farm produce in lieu of cold, hard cash.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger
The Village Lawyer, 1615
75 cm x 125 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent75 cm x 125 cm
But I am not sure that the lawyer was smug or that the peasants were serviced perfunctorily. The scribe in the background was depicted as working very hard on the tasks set by the lawyer, and the peasants seemed respectful and patient. What was needed more than anything in this lawyer's office was an efficient filing system for the masses of papers on the floor, the desk, up on the shelves and tucked into the eaves.
One last thought. Pieter Brueghel II's genre paintings of peasants may well have lacked his father's (Pieter Brueghel I) subtlety and humanism, but perhaps the son emphasised the picturesque on purpose. The moral message of The Village Lawyer could be that it does indeed display the oafish simplicity of the Flemish peasantry, but not out of the artist's sense of elitism. Perhaps the artist both loved his peasant friends and recognised their limitations.
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Who were these village lawyers? In Europe the first univerties in Italy, France and England gave students the choice of arts, canon and civil law, medicine and theology. And we know that Law only became a formal profession with clear educational requirements by the 13th and 14th centuries, and probably later.
Canon lawyers served the church and were not often seen by ordinary citizens.
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One last thought. Pieter Brueghel II's genre paintings of peasants may well have lacked his father's (Pieter Brueghel I) subtlety and humanism, but perhaps the son emphasised the picturesque on purpose. The moral message of The Village Lawyer could be that it does indeed display the oafish simplicity of the Flemish peasantry, but not out of the artist's sense of elitism. Perhaps the artist both loved his peasant friends and recognised their limitations.
**
Who were these village lawyers? In Europe the first univerties in Italy, France and England gave students the choice of arts, canon and civil law, medicine and theology. And we know that Law only became a formal profession with clear educational requirements by the 13th and 14th centuries, and probably later.
Canon lawyers served the church and were not often seen by ordinary citizens.
But civil law was the stuff of everyday life – the writing and execution of wills; conveyancing i.e the drafting of documents for property transactions; labour and other contracts; and defending people charged with petty and more serious crimes. Civil-law notaries drafted and recorded legal instruments for private parties, provided legal advice and gave attendance in person, usually on a fee-for-service basis. Every citizen would have needed, at some time during their life, access to a local lawyer. So men working in civil law would almost always be amongst the elite of the town’s population, educated, well paid and living in decent housing.
One imagines that a village lawyer did not need a PhD to sort out many of the disputes in the manor courts that had to do with farming and property, and small crimes like assault, petty theft, public drunkenness. Perhaps Brueghel’s lawyer found it was boring and repetitive work. Perhaps this lawyer did not like the smell of the Great Unwashed.
One imagines that a village lawyer did not need a PhD to sort out many of the disputes in the manor courts that had to do with farming and property, and small crimes like assault, petty theft, public drunkenness. Perhaps Brueghel’s lawyer found it was boring and repetitive work. Perhaps this lawyer did not like the smell of the Great Unwashed.
William Hogarth
A Midnight Modern Conversation, 1733
132 x 146 cm
National Trust, Petworth House
A Midnight Modern Conversation, 1733
132 x 146 cm
National Trust, Petworth House