Study of Bruegel's Painting Based on Bakhtin's thoughts

Irony and laughter had a special place in 16th century Flanders society, and Pieter Bruegel as one of the greatest painters of this era displays this quality of his society. Bruegel was a painter between the times of middle ages and the Renaissance. In 1604 he was portrayed as the greatest comic artist of his time; however, the nature of his art is something beyond the laughing subject and for reaching a deeper understanding and obtaining new meanings out of his works they must be studied in terms of cultural context – the carnival culture in 16th century Flanders – which they were made in. In this essay Mikhail Bakhtin’s points of view are used as a proper theoretical structure for surveying the works of Bruegel. Bakhtin’s theories cover various and widespread contexts and they have great richness. The focus of this essay is on Bakhtin’s notion and his special point of view toward the carnival and grotesque realism. Bakhtin’s carnival is the emanation of carnival spirit in cultural productions such as painting and literature. The main idea of Bakhtin’s work in carnival comedy and grotesque realism is to depict human body that relates to power disposal and rebirth in carnival. As Bakhtin says, carnivalesque is the primary result of native, local or public culture which people intend to and help by its formation. Accordingly, by surveying carnival forms and symbols, meaningful correspondence can be made between works of art like Bruegel’s and carnival literature of Bakhtin. As a result, research method used in this essay is an adaptive one and the analysis is done by using written the documents and sources.