Pieter Brueghel (The Elder)

Born Pieter Brueghel, the artist dropped the "h" and signed his paintings Bruegel after 1559. He was active at a time when the new Prostesantism was changing attitudes in Northern Europe. One of a family of painters, Bruegel worked first in Antwerp and later in Brussels. With Hieronymus Bosch he is the greatest of the 16th-century Flemish painters. His genre paintings express the peasant life of the Low Countries in an emotionally realist way. Most of his work has a moral lesson to teach, and the viciousness underlying peasant life can be seen. Bruegel began his career creating drawings for a prominent engraver who encouraged the artist to travel to Italy. This was to have a great impact on his art as he blended the religious subjects of the High Renaissance with a commentary on the religious wars of the time. No burial record exists, but there is good evidence Bruegel died September 5, 1569.

Pieter Brueghel (The Elder) Images:
Children?s Games
Peasant?s Dance
Tower Of Babel
Village Wedding Feast
Winter Landscape With Skaters
Winter/Hunters in the Snow