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 Netherlandish painter 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.
In the series Seven Deadly Sins, Pieter Bruegel the Elder achieved a truly creative synthesis of the demonic symbolism of Hieronymus Bosch with his own personal vision of human folly and depravity. This was very unlikely of any of his Antwerp contemporaries.
In Combat of Carnival and Lent, Pieter Bruegel the Elder showed a new sensitivity to color, specifically in the use of bright primary hues and a rhythmic organization of forms which were unique to Pieter.
The two most phantasmagoric works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the Dulle Griet and the Triumph of Death were related in conception to his encyclopaedic paintings. Both paintings were presumed to have been executed in 1562. The Tower of Babel of 1563 was the last of the great figurative anthologies by Pieter.
The Dutch biographer Karel van Mander, who wrote in 1604, was the one major source of information concerning Netherlandish painter 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.
In the series Seven Deadly Sins, Pieter Bruegel the Elder achieved a truly creative synthesis of the demonic symbolism of Hieronymus Bosch with his own personal vision of human folly and depravity. This was very unlikely of any of his Antwerp contemporaries.
In Combat of Carnival and Lent, Pieter Bruegel the Elder showed a new sensitivity to color, specifically in the use of bright primary hues and a rhythmic organization of forms which were unique to Pieter.
The two most phantasmagoric works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the Dulle Griet and the Triumph of Death were related in conception to his encyclopaedic paintings. Both paintings were presumed to have been executed in 1562. The Tower of Babel of 1563 was the last of the great figurative anthologies by Pieter.
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