Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Flemish Northern Renaissance artist who lived circa 1525/1530 to 1569. History has given Bruegel the distinction as Pieter Bruegel the Elder to distinguish him from his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, who was also a very successful artist (and who kept the original spelling of the family’s surname).
Bruegel was one of the most important artists of the Northern Renaissance movement. As a humanist, he specialized in genre paintings depicting scenes from everyday life in which peasants were often the focus. Before the Renaissance movement, artists typically only painted religious subjects. Humanism inspired artists to depict new subject matters, such as the everyday life of the common folk.
In his early studies, Bruegel studied under the Flemish artist, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter he would later marry. After becoming a master, he traveled south to study in Italy. While there, Bruegel made many sketches, all of them landscapes. Interestingly, he did no studies of the Roman ruins or the great Renaissance masters’ sculptures, as was popular for visiting artists at the time.
Bruegel married van Aelst’s daughter and moved to Brussels in 1563. He was well-known and respected by this time, living wholly off of his paintings. Bruegel enjoyed the patronage of many wealthy families and politicians. Though he did create some Biblical and mythological scenes, his art mostly depicted daily life on various landscapes. He never painted portraits. Bruegel died rather young in 1569 at about 40 years old.
Bruegel choosing to depict peasants as a subject matter was quite extraordinary at the time. His paintings are so authentically detailed that his paintings have been used by researchers to get historical details of daily life. He received the nickname “Bruegel the Peasant” due to his method of dressing up as a peasant to mingle with the locals and get details and inspiration for his work. Bruegel was well-known in his time and although there are only 45 known pieces of his work in existence, he is still well-known today. He was a major influence on the artists of the Dutch Golden Age of Art, including the great Rembrandt.
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