Elena Kashchenko
Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
“The Mill and the Cross”, a film directed by Lech Majewski, is dedicated to the episode from life of the great Dutch painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It is widely known that his biography is almost obscure (see, for example: Karel van Mander’s “Het Schilderboeck”), but modern authors have attempted to “reconstruct” events. A French historian K. -A. Roque wrote a book “Bruegel: ou l’Atelier des songes” (1987); a Polish film director L. Majewski directed the above-mentioned film. What attracts a 21th-century viewer in Bruegel’s art? Is it possible to assess the artist’s works adequately without accurate biographical information about him? What is preferable when it comes to a master of a classical epoch — a documentary or an artistic project? Finally, has a customer’s relationship with an artist, and that of an author wihe th an audience changed? Before Majewski’s film successful attempts of cinematic interpretation of the artist’s biographies were made by Jos Stelling (1977) and Derek Jarman (1986). What’s the difference between them and Majewski’s work?