Bruegel the Elder: 165 Paintings and Drawings E-Book

Narim Bender

• Herausgeber: Narim Bender
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Dutch Renaissance painter and printmaker from Brabant, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so called genre painting). He received the nickname "Peasant Bruegel" or "Bruegel the Peasant" for his practice of dressing up like a peasant in order to socialize at weddings and other celebrations, thereby gaining inspiration and authentic details for his genre paintings. His drawings and prints made after his designs, while based on traditional sources, are innovative and independent, and they are wide ranging in their subject matter. Among Bruegel's foremost achievements in the graphic realm is the naturalistic rendering of landscapes. The great master also created a body of peerless figurative designs featuring demons, virtuous souls, fools, and faceless peasants tilling the land. In allegories, portrayals of proverbs, and biblical narratives he dissected the imperfections of human nature, giving free rein to his imagination and wicked sense of humor. Often Bruegel produced what one early observer called "fantasies and bizarre things, dreams, and imaginations" that were closely based on the work of Hieronymus Bosch and inspired his contemporaries to call him the "second Bosch."

Leseprobe

Bruegel the Elder:

165 Paintings and Drawings

By Narim Bender

––––––––

First Edition

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Bruegel the Elder: 165 Paintings and Drawings

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Copyright © 2015 Narim Bender

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

Paintings

Drawings

Foreword

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525 – 1569) was a Dutch Renaissance painter and printmaker from Brabant, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so called genre painting). There are two sources for Bruegel's biography. The first one is Lodovico Guicciardini's account of the Low Countries, and the second one is Karel van Mander's 1604 Schilder-boeck. Lodovico Guicciardini reports that he was born in Breda, but according to van Mander, he was born in Breugel near the (now Dutch) town of Breda. He was an apprentice of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter Mayken 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 painter's guild. He traveled to Italy soon after, and then returned to Antwerp before settling in Brussels permanently 10 years later.

He received the nickname "Peasant Bruegel" or "Bruegel the Peasant" for his practice of dressing up like a peasant in order to socialize at weddings and other celebrations, thereby gaining inspiration and authentic details for his genre paintings.

He died in Brussels on 9 September 1569 and was buried in the Kapellekerk.

His drawings and prints made after his designs, while based on traditional sources, are innovative and independent, and they are wide ranging in their subject matter.

Among Bruegel's foremost achievements in the graphic realm is the naturalistic rendering of landscapes. In many instances inspired by the Alpine mountains and valleys the artists encountered during a journey in Italy he made as a young man, these views synthesize the imagery of Bruegel's Italian and Netherlandish predecessors at the same time they represent a new and highly influential departure: an independent landscape genre entirely focused on nature.

The great master also created a body of peerless figurative designs featuring demons, virtuous souls, fools, and faceless peasants tilling the land. In allegories, portrayals of proverbs, and biblical narratives he dissected the imperfections of human nature, giving free rein to his imagination and wicked sense of humor. Often Bruegel produced what one early observer called "fantasies and bizarre things, dreams, and imaginations" that were closely based on the work of Hieronymus Bosch and inspired his contemporaries to call him the "second Bosch."