Pieter Bruegel

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Pieter Bruegel
Brueghel until 1559 Sons retained h in name
the elder ca 1525 - 1569
In Antwerp, apprenticed to Pieter Coecke van
Aelst 1551-3 Wanderjahre Some time in Rome, met
Marten de Vos 1563 Married Coeckes daughter
Mayken, moved to Brussels Patrons Cardinal
Antione Perrenot de Granvelle, president of the
council of state in the Netherlands brother
Niclaes de Granvelle 1569 Death, burial in
Brussels
First biography in Carel van Mander's Het
Schilderboeck (Book of Painters),
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Artist and Patron
c. 1565 Pen and black ink on brown paper, 25
x 21.6 cm Albertina
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A Second Bosch
Reproduced images after Bosch for the print
market Inspired by virtue, vice, human folly
1556 Pen drawing Graphische Sammlung
Albertina, Vienna
Big Fishes Eat Little Fishes
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Avarice
1558 B W engraving 23 1/2 x 30 1/2 cm. on
mount 15 x 18 in.
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The alchemist
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Landscape of the alps
Pen and sepia inkMusée du Louvre, Paris
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Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples1558-62Oil on
panel, 42,2 x 71,2 cmGalleria Doria-Pamphili,
Rome
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Landscape with the Fall of Icarus c. 1558
Oil/ canvas, mounted on wood, 73.5 x 112 cm
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
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Musee des Beaux-Arts
by W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong, The Old
Masters how well, they understood Its human
position how it takes place While someone else
is eating or opening a window or just walking
dully along How, when the aged are reverently,
passionately waiting For the miraculous birth,
there always must be Children who did not
specially want it to happen, skating On a pond
at the edge of the wood They never forgot That
even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the
dogs go on with their doggy life and the
torturer's horse Scratches its innocent behind
on a tree. In Breughel's Icarus, for instance
how everything turns away Quite leisurely from
the disaster the ploughman may Have heard the
splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not
an important failure the sun shone As it had to
on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water and the expensive delicate ship that must
have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out
of the sky, had somewhere to get to and sailed
calmly on.
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Flemish Proverbs
1559Oil on oak panel, 117 x 163 cmStaatliche
Museen, Berlin Read more World of
Netherlandish Proverbs
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Blue mantle
She puts the blue mantle on her husband (she
deceives him To place horns on his head). To
cast roses (pearls) before swine (Matthew 76
effort wasted on the unworthy).
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Parable of the blind leading the blind
1568Tempera on canvas, 86 x 154 cmGalleria
Nazionale, Naples
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Childrens Games
1559-60Oil on wood, 118 x 161 cmKunsthistorische
s Museum, Vienna Compare to Rabelais list of
Gargantuas games
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Habsburg politics
Maximilian I son Philip the Fair 1496
marr. Juana of Aragon Castile - Charles
V - Mary of Hungary Regent in the
Netherlands 1530-d.1558 Netherlands were
Catholic, but many Protestant sects treated
harshly 1555 Peace of Augsburg, 1556 Abdication
of Charles V Ferdinand I became Emperor of
H.R.E. Philip II ruler of Netherlands In the
Netherlands 1555 Mary of Hungary
abdicated Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy 1558
Margaret of Parma, illeg. dgtr of Charles
V 1566 Duke of Alva
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Triumph of Death
c. 1562Oil on panel, 117 x 162 cmMuseo del
Prado, Madrid Read more Related to "terrors of
1566"? Duke of Alva and reprisals
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Massacre of the Innocents
1565-66Oil on panel, 111 x 160
cmKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
This is a later version showing the troop
commander, clearly visible, somewhat larger than
his men, sporting a full beard. The Duke of
Alva? Skeptics point out that the Duke did not
enter Brussels until 1567. If Bruegel's painting
is 1565, or earlier, then the reference cannot be
a direct one. Or, the Vienna version might have
been painted even later than suspected.
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Above Hampton Court Right Vienna
Kunsthistorisches Mus.
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Cycle of the Seasons
1. The Gloomy Day Feb-MarchVienna,
Kunsthistorisches 118 x 163 cm 2.
Spring missing Apr-May 3. Hay
Harvest June-JulyNarodni Gallery, Prague 4.
Wheat Harvest Harvesters Aug-SeptNew York,
Metropolitan Art Added strips on all four
sides 46 7/8 x 63 3/4 in. (119 x 162 cm) 5.
Return of the Herd Autumn Oct-NovVienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum (117 x 159 cm) 6.
Hunters in the Snow Winter Dec-Jan Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches 46 x 64 in. (117 x 162 cm)
Patron Niclaes de Grenvelle (Rich Antwerp
collector, By 1566, owned 16 Bruegel
paintings)Six paintings originally? (Spring
missing since 17th century) Or twelve, one for
each month. Peasant pictures similar size
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Wheat Harvest
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Land of Cockayne
1567Oil on panel, 52 x 78 cmAlte Pinakothek,
Munich
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"Peasant Breughel"
With this merchant, Hans Franckert,Breughel
often went out into the countryto see the
peasants at their fairs and weddings. Disguised
as peasants they brought gifts like the other
guests, claiming relationship or kinship with
the bride or groom. Here Breughel delighted in
observing the droll behavior of the peasants,
how they ate, drank, danced, capered, or made
love, all of which he was well able to reproduce
cleverly and plesantly in water colors or oils,
being equally silled in both processes.
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Peasant Dance
1568Oil on oak panel, 114 x 164
cmKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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Peasant Wedding
c. 1568Oil on wood, 114 x 164 cmKunsthistorische
s Museum, Vienna
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Destruction of "biting" works
Many of his composition of comical subjects,
strange and full of meaning, can be seen
engraved but he made many more works of this
kind in careful and beautifully finished drawings
to which he had added inscriptions. But as some
of them were too biting and sharp, he had them
burnt by his wife when he was on his deeathbed,
from remorse or for fear that shemight get into
trouble and might have to answer for them. In
his will he bequeathed to his wife a painting of
a Magpie on the Gallows. By the magpie he meant
the gossips whom he would deliver to the gallows.
Another painting showed Truth Breaking Through.
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Magpie on the Gallow
1568Wood, 45,9 x 50,8 cmHessisches
Landesmuseum, Darmstadt
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Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery
1565 signed datedoil on panel 24x34cm 9 ½ x
13 ½ in.Courtauld Gallery