Pieter Bruegel’s year and place of birth are not known for certain, but we do know that he began an apprenticeship at a young age with the painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1550). He later married Coecke’s daughter and had two sons, who, like their father, became renowned painters.
Pieter Bruegel undertook the journey to Italy, which was almost obligatory at the time, where he studied classical antiquity and the great Italian masters. On his return, he settled in Antwerp, where he quickly became famous for his etchings, engravings, drawings and landscape paintings.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder was best known for his lively and detailed depictions of rural life, such as the iconic painting The Peasant Wedding (1567/68), which many will recognise from placemats in pancake houses. These paintings capture the atmosphere of everyday life with great warmth and an eye for detail.
But Pieter Bruegel is best known worldwide for two works that take centre stage in Remastered: The Tower of Babel (c. 1565), which is on display at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and The Triumph of Death (1562).
The Tower of Babel is based on the biblical story in which Nimrod, the ruler of the land of Shinar, orders the construction of a tower that is to reach up to the heavens. God punishes this hubris by giving humanity different languages, so that they can no longer understand one another and the construction of the tower is delayed. This story carries a timeless message about the limits of human ambition and the dangers of blind faith in technology.
The painting The Triumph of Death depicts the Biblical Day of Judgement. On the left, you can see an army of skeletons locking people inside a container-like building. On the right stands a cart full of skulls, drawn by an emaciated horse with two skeletons on its back. The painting is filled with images of human fear, demonic figures and inescapable death. No one is spared, from peasants to noblemen, kings and cardinals: all face their death.
The Pieter Bruegel paintings featured in our exhibition can be viewed at the following venues:
Pieter Bruegel, The Battle Between Lent and Shrove Tuesday, 1559, oil on oak panel, 118 x 164.2 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. khm.at
Pieter Bruegel, *Proverbs* or *The Blue Hood*, 1559, oil on oak panel, 117 x 163 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany. smb.museum
Pieter Bruegel, *The Tower of Babel*, painting, 1563, oil on oak panel, 114 x 155 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. khm.at
Pieter Bruegel, The (Small) Tower of Babel, 1568, oil on panel, 59.9 x 74.6 cm, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands. boijmans.nl
Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph of Death, 1562, oil on panel, 117 x 162 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain. museodelprado.es
Pieter Bruegel, The Peasant Wedding Dance, 1566, oil on panel, 119.4 x 157.5 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, United States. dia.org
Pieter Bruegel, The Peasant Wedding, 1567–1568, oil on oak panel, 114 × 164 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. khm.at
Pieter Bruegel, The Peasant Dance or The Village Fair, c. 1567, oil on panel, 114 x 164 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. khm.at
Other works and artworks by Pieter Bruegel can be viewed at:
Fritz Mayer van den Bergh Museum – Antwerp, Belgium museummayervandenbergh.be
Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium – Brussels, Belgium fine-arts-museum.be
Alte Pinakothek – Munich, Germany pinakothek.de
Louvre Museum – Paris, France louvre.fr
The Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York, United States metmuseum.org
National Gallery – London, United Kingdom nationalgallery.org.uk
Uffizi Gallery – Florence, Italy uffizi.it
Albertina – Vienna, Austria albertina.at
Capodimonte Museum – Naples, Italy capodimonte.cultura.gov.it
Frick Collection – New York, United States frick.org
Further information about Pieter Bruegel can be found at: wikipedia.org