The Life and Works of Pieter Breughel, the Elder, 1525

The Life and Works of
Pieter Breughel
the Elder, 1525 - 1569

AnArtShow Magazine
Art History Review

Regarded by many as the greatest Flemish painter of the sixteenth century, Pieter Breughel was born about 1525, in the town of Breda, in what is now the Netherlands. Little is known of his childhood, but in his early twenties he was apprenticed to Pieter Coecke van Aelst, a prominent Antwerp artist and engraver, and in 1551, when he was probably about twenty-five, he was accepted into the Antwerp Painters' Guild. Some time between 1552 and 1553 he traveled via France to Italy, where he studied and painted until his return to Antwerp in 1555.

Breughel lived during the "Mannerist" period in Italian and Northern European art . In spite of this, he took little interest in the Mannerist trend towards anti-classical stylization, distortion, emotionality and artistic affectation. Instead he took his inspiration from the work of the Late Gothic painter Hieronymous Bosch, who had lived a generation earlier. Bosch's influence became vividly apparent after Breughel accepted employment as an engraving designer with Antwerp publisher Hieronymous Cock, in 1556. It was there that he began to become known for satirical and often moralizing drawings and engravings that borrowed heavily from Bosch's artistic style.

Breughel also continued to paint during his employment with Cock, and he soon became famous for his large, figurative canvases about Biblical subjects, peasant life, folklore and the landscape of Northern Europe. His work continued to show Bosch's influence, but he took the style in new directions. He focused less on religious and eschatological themes, and more on the actual

"Peasant Dance", 1568
One of Breughel's most popular works.

"Big Fish Eat Little Fish"
Engraving, 1556

The Seven Deadly Sins

"The Seven Deadly Sins"
Engraving, c 1556

condition of his world and the people who lived in it. He was especially interested in the peasant class, for whom he seemed to feel a strong empathy and concern

. Breughel's second residency in Antwerp lasted for eight years, during which time he created prolifically. His work from this period includes his three "encyclopedic" paintings, "Netherlandish Proverbs", "Children's Games", and "The Combat between Carnival and Lent", affectionately documenting the practices and customs of the peasant class. Also from this period are two Boschian phantasmagoric fantasies, "Dulle Griet (Mad Meg)", and "The Triumph of Death", lamenting the presence of evil in the world, and one painting called "The Tower of Babel", which comments on the futility of materialistic ambition.

In 1563 when Breughel was probably in his late thirties, he married the daughter of his former master, Van Aelst, and moved to Brussels. There Bosch's influence faded and Breughel's own style matured. He abandoned Bosch's patterned arrangements of small figures in favor of more natural and realistic compositions with larger foreground figures, more natural colors, and full depth of field. He de-emphasized moralistic concerns and focused much more on his affection for the natural world he knew and loved, and for the people who inhabited it. This period produced the sweeping populated landscapes and lively peasant scenes for which he is best known. In 1565 he was commissioned to do a series of paintings representing the months of the year. Historians believe he fulfilled the commission by creating six paintings, each one representing a two-month "traditional season" of the year. Five of those paintings have survived, and they have become for many, Breughel's most beloved works.

Breughel's "Mature" period in Brussels was prolific, but lasted only six years. He died in 1569 at about forty-four years of age.