Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Netherlandish Renaissance painter and printmaker known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. He was nicknamed Peasant Bruegel to distinguish him from other members of the Bruegel dynasty. He was the greatest member of a large and important southern Netherlandish family of artists active for four generation in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Dutch biographer Karel van Mander, who wrote in 1604, was the one major source of information concerning Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Karel was a near-contemporary of Pieter. He claims that Pieter was born in a town of the same name near Breda on the modern Dutch-Belgian border.
By way of the Alps, Pieter Bruegel the Elder returned to Antwerp around 1555. This return resulted to a number of exquisite drawings of mountain landscapes. Forming the basis for many of his later paintings, these sketches were not records of actual places but composites made for the investigation of the organic life in forms of nature.
There is evidence to suggest that Pieter Bruegel the Elder was attempting to substitute a new and moral eschatology for the traditional view of the Christian cosmos of Bosch in his series of engravings, Seven Deadly Sins. This was despite of efforts to dismiss the engravings as fascinating drolleries.
Forming the body of the early encyclopedic works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder were the 1559 painting of the Netherlandish Proverbs and the 1560 highly involved artwork of Children's Games. They have been considered as allegories of a foolish and sinful world, despite their superficial gaiety.
The 1562 painting of Pieter Bruegel the Elder entitled the Triumph of Death, was interpreted as a reference to the outbreak of religious persecutions in the Netherlands at the time. Meanwhile, the 1563 painting of the Tower of Babel was intended to symbolize the futility of human ambitions and to criticize the spirit of commercialism then reigning in Antwerp.
The Dutch biographer Karel van Mander, who wrote in 1604, was the one major source of information concerning Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Karel was a near-contemporary of Pieter. He claims that Pieter was born in a town of the same name near Breda on the modern Dutch-Belgian border.
By way of the Alps, Pieter Bruegel the Elder returned to Antwerp around 1555. This return resulted to a number of exquisite drawings of mountain landscapes. Forming the basis for many of his later paintings, these sketches were not records of actual places but composites made for the investigation of the organic life in forms of nature.
There is evidence to suggest that Pieter Bruegel the Elder was attempting to substitute a new and moral eschatology for the traditional view of the Christian cosmos of Bosch in his series of engravings, Seven Deadly Sins. This was despite of efforts to dismiss the engravings as fascinating drolleries.
Forming the body of the early encyclopedic works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder were the 1559 painting of the Netherlandish Proverbs and the 1560 highly involved artwork of Children's Games. They have been considered as allegories of a foolish and sinful world, despite their superficial gaiety.
The 1562 painting of Pieter Bruegel the Elder entitled the Triumph of Death, was interpreted as a reference to the outbreak of religious persecutions in the Netherlands at the time. Meanwhile, the 1563 painting of the Tower of Babel was intended to symbolize the futility of human ambitions and to criticize the spirit of commercialism then reigning in Antwerp.
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