Focus on this artwork and analyze the Background.
Sixteenth-century Europe was undergoing many societal changes: the Protestant Reformation and its rejection of public religious imagery; Renaissance humanism and its emphasis on empiricism at the expense of religious faith; and the growth of the middle class amidst the rise of mercantilism.  It was a time of rapid advances in learning and knowledge, and a move towards the empirical sciences—the age of the heliocentric theory of Copernicus and of Gutenberg's printing presses.  The cartography of Ortelius influenced the painting of landscapes, and the advances Vesalius brought to the study of anatomy via the direct observation of dissected bodies, motivated artists to pay greater attention to the accuracy of the anatomy in their works.Art was now traded in open markets; artists sought to distinguish themselves with subjects different from traditional noble, mythological, and Biblical ones, and developed new, realistic techniques based on empirical observation.  Classical literature provided precedents for dealing with "low" subjects in art. Genre art and its depiction of ordinary people and everyday life emerged against this background.Pieter Bruegel the Elder began his career illustrating landscapes and fantastic scenes in a dense style that earned him a reputation as artistic heir to Hieronymus Bosch.  He soon came to follow the example of another master, Pieter Aertsen, who had made a name for himself in the 1550s depicting everyday scenes in a highly realistic style, such as the detailed array of meat products that dominate his large Butcher's Stall of 1551. Bruegel's subjects became more quotidian and his style observational.  He achieved fame for detailed, accurate and realistic portrayals of peasants, with whom his paintings were popular.  He painted on linen canvas and oak panel, and avoided scenes of magnificence and portraits of nobility or royalty.  The peasants Bruegel at first depicted were featureless and undifferentiated; as his work matured, their physiognomy became markedly more detailed and expressive.
In 1563, Bruegel married Mayken, the daughter of his teacher Pieter Coecke van Aelst, and moved to Brussels, the seat of government in the Spanish Netherlands (1556–1714). In 1567 the governor of the Netherlands, the Duke of Alba, established the Council of Troubles (popularly called the "Blood Council") to suppress non-Catholic religions and enforce Spanish rule, leading to mass arrests and executions.   Whether Bruegel had Calvinist sympathies or intended a political message in The Blind is not clear, but the evidence indicates he likely held views critical of the Catholic Church.  A bitter, sorrowful tone characterizes his last works, such as The Blind and The Magpie on the Gallows.In ancient Greece the blind were depicted as having received gifts from the gods, and blind singers were held in high regard.  In mediaeval Europe, the blind were depicted as the subjects of miracles, such as Bartimaeus in the healing the blind near Jericho in Mark 10:46–52.  Following the Reformation, painted depictions of saints and miracles fell out of favour in Protestant areas.  In Catholic thought, charitable works of mercy, such as giving alms to the blind and poor, were good works which, together with faith, helped the salvation of the doer. However, the Protestant doctrine of sola fide rejected the efficacy of works in achieving salvation, prescribing that it depended on faith alone (and the complication of God's predestined will for each individual).  The status of charity for the poor and infirm diminished, and beggars saw their circumstances deteriorate.  In popular literature of the time, the blind were depicted as rogues or targets of pranks.  The parable of the blind leading the blind also appears as one of the illustrated proverbs in Bruegel's Netherlandish Proverbs (1559).
the blind leading the blind Netherlandish Proverbs Pieter Bruegel the Elder predestined will Council of Troubles Copernicus works of mercy Pieter Coecke van Aelst Genre art Pieter Aertsen Gutenberg sola fide Spanish Netherlands Reformation canvas mercantilism cartography parable peasant Catholic Church Vesalius Ortelius heliocentric Brussels another Bosch anatomy middle class empiricism Mark Protestant Reformation rejection of public religious imagery healing the blind near Jericho The Magpie on the Gallows one Hieronymus Bosch Renaissance humanism Duke of Alba The Blind good works