Nice post, artistic vision is crucial for the artist. So much of what we see in the art world is commercially driven and stylish, like fashion. But to have vision makes for compelling work.

That Brueghel painting is truly one of the great masterpieces in the world. I love his work, the whole family of painters, some of the first truly savvy individual artists marketing secular work. It reminds me of Tarkovsky's use of the painting in Solaris. The images of Earth in the painting become filled with a great longing for home, and in this case the woman is actually the alien observing our world through the painting.