The Blind Leading the Blind
Encyclopedia
The Blind Leading the Blind is an oil painting
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, dating from 1568 and housed in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples
, southern Italy
. Other titles include Blind and The Parable of the Blind.
There are six blind men going forward one after the other. A blind
guide goes first and falls in a hole with his staff. The next blind man trips over the first one. The third connected with the second with a staff follow his predecessors. The fifth and the sixth don't yet know what is happening but will fall into the hole at the end.
The painting is based upon a saying of Jesus
that appears in the Gospels: "Can the blind lead the blind?
Will they not both fall into the ditch?"
The church in the background is the Sint-Anna Church
of Sint-Anna-Pede
.
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, dating from 1568 and housed in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, southern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Other titles include Blind and The Parable of the Blind.
There are six blind men going forward one after the other. A blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
guide goes first and falls in a hole with his staff. The next blind man trips over the first one. The third connected with the second with a staff follow his predecessors. The fifth and the sixth don't yet know what is happening but will fall into the hole at the end.
The painting is based upon a saying of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
that appears in the Gospels: "Can the blind lead the blind?
The blind leading the blind
"The blind leading the blind" is a metaphor used in antiquity, notably by Jesus in the Matthew and Luke , as well as in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas .In Matthew, Jesus responds to a question about the Pharisees saying:...
Will they not both fall into the ditch?"
The church in the background is the Sint-Anna Church
Sint-Anna Church (Itterbeek)
The Sint-Anna Church is a Roman Catholic church in Sint-Anna-Pede in Dilbeek), Belgium. It is depicted on The Blind Leading the Blind by Pieter Breughel the Elder.-History:...
of Sint-Anna-Pede
Sint-Anna-Pede
Sint-Anna-Pede is a village in Itterbeek, which is a deelgemeente of Dilbeek. It gets its name from the Pedebeek, the stream that flows through the village....
.