Pieter Bruegel the Elder  

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Big Fish Eat Little Fish, a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
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Big Fish Eat Little Fish, a drawing by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Detail of Superbia (1577) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, science fiction avant-la-lettre (from the collection The Seven Deadly Sins or the Seven Vices)
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Detail of Superbia (1577) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, science fiction avant-la-lettre (from the collection The Seven Deadly Sins or the Seven Vices)
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (1560s); formerly attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder
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Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (1560s); formerly attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Triumph of Death (1562) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
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The Triumph of Death (1562) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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Pieter Bruegel (Brueghel) the Elder (c. 1525 – 9 September 1569) was a Flemish renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so called genre painting). He is sometimes referred to as the "Peasant Bruegel" to distinguish him from other members of the Brueghel dynasty, but he is also the one generally meant when the context does not make clear which Brueghel is being referred to. From 1559 he dropped the 'h' from his name and signed his paintings as Bruegel.

The most obvious influence on his art is the older Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch, particularly in Brueghel's early "doom paintings" such as The Triumph of Death and De Dulle Griet (Mad Meg).

Contents

Life

There are records that he was born in Breda, Netherlands, but it is uncertain whether the Dutch town of Breda or the Belgian town of Bree, called Breda in Latin, is meant. He was the son of a peasant residing in the village of Breughel. He was an apprentice of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter Mayke he later married. He spent some time in France and Italy, and then went to Antwerp, where in 1551 he was accepted as a master in the painters' guild. He traveled to Italy soon after, and then returned to Antwerp before settling in Brussels permanently 10 years later. He died there on 9 September, 1569. Other accounts give 1590 as the date of his death.

He was the father of Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder. Both became painters, but as they were very young children when their father died, neither received any training from him. It is likely that they were instructed by their mother, Mayke.

Style

In Brueghel's later years he painted in a simpler style than the Italianate art that prevailed in his time. The most obvious influence on his art is the older Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch, particularly in Brueghel's early "doom paintings" such as The Triumph of Death and De Dulle Griet (Mad Meg). It was in nature, however, that he found his greatest inspirations as he is identified as being a master of landscapes. It was in these landscapes that Brueghel created a story, with almost several scenes seemingly combined in one painting. Such works can be seen in The Fall of the Rebel Angels and the previously mentioned The Triumph of Death.

Themes

Bruegel specialized in genre paintings populated by peasants, often with a large landscape element, but also painted religious works. Making the life and manners of peasants the main focus of a work was rare in painting in Brueghel's time, and he was a pioneer of the Netherlandish genre painting. His earthy, unsentimental but vivid depiction of the rituals of village life—including agriculture, hunts, meals, festivals, dances, and games—are unique windows on a vanished folk culture and a prime source of iconographic evidence about both physical and social aspects of 16th century life. For example, the painting Netherlandish Proverbs illustrates dozens of then-contemporary aphorisms (many of them still in use in current Dutch or Flemish), and Children's Games shows the variety of amusements enjoyed by young people. His winter landscapes of 1565 (e.g. Hunters in the Snow) are taken as corroborative evidence of the severity of winters during the Little Ice Age.

Using abundant spirit and comic power, he created some of the early images of acute social protest in art history. Examples include paintings such as The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (a satire of the conflicts of the Reformation) and engravings like The Ass in the School and Strongboxes Battling Piggybanks. On his deathbed he reportedly ordered his wife to burn the most subversive of his drawings to protect his family from political persecution.

Works

There are about 45 authenticated surviving paintings, one third of which are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A number of others are known to have been lost. There are a large number of drawings. Brueghel only etched one plate himself, The Rabbit Hunt, but designed many engravings and etchings, mostly for the Cock publishing house.

Prints

See also

Brueghel (disambiguation)




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