Bruegel, Pieter, << BROY guhl, PEE tuhr >> the Elder (1525?-1569), was an important Flemish painter. He painted religious subjects and scenes of everyday life, and he created designs for engravings.
Some of Bruegel’s paintings are highly detailed works that show large numbers of peasants engaged in festive activities. These paintings include The Peasant Dance (about 1566), The Wedding Feast (about 1566), and The Wedding Dance (1566). Other paintings present panoramic views of landscapes filled with peasants engaged in many different activities. Examples include The Battle Between Carnival and Lent (1559), The Netherlandish Proverbs (1559), and Children’s Games (1560). These brightly colored paintings portray many descriptive details of life and dress in Bruegel’s day. The peasants portrayed are anonymous, stocky, sometimes coarse figures. Such paintings reflect the influence of proverbs and parables in which the peasants’ activities symbolize the folly Bruegel saw in humanity in general. Some of the works demonstrate a moral about the behavior of human beings. Others appear to make gentle, sometimes humorous observations about human nature.
Bruegel’s Triumph of Death (about 1562) is an example of a painting with a moral. It shows an army of skeletons swarming over a war-torn landscape, killing people and dragging them to hell. The scene provides a chilling vision of mass destruction. Bruegel may have been commenting on the religious wars that were then taking place, or warning people to reform before facing death. This painting may also have been influenced by the pessimistic images of the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.
In 1565, Bruegel completed a series of paintings that portray the seasons. Five of these paintings still exist. They show peasants working in beautiful landscape backgrounds of fields, hills, mountains, and rivers that stretch to the horizon. Bruegel carefully portrayed both the activities of the peasants and the particular characteristics of nature during each season. The peasants appear united with nature as elements in the life cycle.
Bruegel was born in either the Netherlands or Belgium. During his lifetime, he became famous largely through engravings made from his works. Bruegel had two sons, Jan the Elder and Pieter the Younger, who became noted painters. He died in September 1569.
