Pieter Bruegel, the Elder
 Pieter
Bruegel, the elder was a Netherlandish
Renaissance painter and
printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. His
contemporaries dubbed him 'Boeren-Bruegel' (Farmers-Bruegel) for his
skilful sketches of country-life, a nickname that does not do
justice to either his work or his talent. Much of his work is
clearly inspired by
Jeroen Bosch. Bruegel specialized in landscapes populated by peasants. He is often credited as
being the first
Western painter to paint landscapes for their own sake, rather than as a
backdrop for
history painting.Attention to the life and manners of peasants was rare in the arts in Brueghel's
time. 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.What is unusual about his religious work is the setting: the landscape and
figures in many of his works are Flemish, not Middle Eastern, and
Saul's conversion(The Conversion of St Paul, shown here) takes place
in the Alps – most likely a remnant of Bruegel's most recent trip to
Italy. Known as Pieter Bruegel the Elder to distinguish him from his elder son,
he
was the first in a family of Flemish painters. He spelled his name Brueghel
until 1559, and his sons retained the "h" in the spelling of their names. Pieter Bruegel the Elder,
is generally considered the greatest Flemish painter of
the 16th century, is by far the most important member of the family. He was
probably born in Breda in the Duchy of Brabant, now in The Netherlands. Accepted
as a master in the Antwerp painters' guild in 1551, he was apprenticed to Coecke
van Aelst, a leading Antwerp artist, sculptor, architect, and designer of
tapestry and stained glass. |
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 Bruegel's
use of landscape defies easy interpretation, and demonstrates perhaps
the artist's greatest innovation. Working in the aftermath of the
Reformation, Bruegel was able to separate his landscapes from
long-standing iconographic tradition, and achieve a contemporary and
palpable vision of the natural world. For the Antwerp home of the
wealthy merchant Niclaes Jongelinck, who owned no less than sixteen of
the artist's works, Bruegel executed a series of paintings representing
the Seasons, of which five survive: Gloomy Day, Return of the Herd,
Hunters in the Snow, Haymaking, and The Harvesters
(shown here). Though rooted in the legacy of calendar scenes,
Bruegel's emphasis is not on the labors that mark each season but on the
atmosphere and transformation of the landscape itself. These panoramic
compositions suggest an insightful and universal vision of the world—a
vision that distinguishes all the work of their remarkable creator,
Pieter Bruegel the Elder.In 1563 he married Mayken, daughter of Pieter Coeck van Aelst, and they settled in Brussels. They had two sons: Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder (distinguished by their retaining the letter 'h' in their surnames), both artists. Indeed Pieter Bruegel the Elder was the head of a dynasty which comprised four generations of artists, although non destined to be so great as himself. |
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 For
the rest of his life Bruegel was active as both a painter and a designer
of prints, although after about 1562 painting seemed to have occupied
most of his time. During the last years of his life Bruegel was
greatly
influenced by Italian Renaissance art with its inclination towards the
monumental. This can be seen in such works as The Peasant Wedding (shown here),
The Peasant Dance,
and The Peasant and the Birdnester,
where the figures are larger in scale, more in the foreground, with a lower
viewpoint and less emphasis on the setting. However Pieter Bruegel, the elder still continued to
produce works in his earlier style with small figures in panoramic settings and
his only real relationship with the Italian style in any of his paintings is in
the simplicity of form rather than in the idealization of character.Simplification is the key factor differentiating Bruegel from other 16th century Flemish artists even though he possessed an equally acute appetite for detail. In his paintings eyes are reduced to round holes, heads resemble footballs, bodies look like punched sacks of flour and clothing is nearly always generalized. This lack of emphasis on fine detail enables more stress to be placed on the silhouette of the forms, and herein are found some of his most characteristic and telling effects. The flat patterns formed by the outline of the figures are strikingly evident in such works as Hunters in the Snow, where the stunning visual impact of the striding figures, the dogs and the receding tree-trunks has earned the artist justifiable fame. Like Degas, Bruegel was evidently fond of figure-shapes which are formally complete in themselves and it is noticeable how often his figures are shown from the back, lending even greater simplicity to the form. Indeed it is his sense of shape pervading every fragment of the natural scene, both animate and inanimate, which provides his distinctive hallmark and represents, arguably, the crowning achievement for Bruegel as an artist. |
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