Bruegel

Probably the most popular of Flemish painters, Pieter Bruegel the Elder has become a legendary figure whose work has stimulated the curiosity, the research, and the study of diverse historians and critics from many countries. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Bruegel rejected pictorial fashions of the day and the romanticism of the Italianate style. Grounded in the traditions of his own country, he chose rather to develop the conventions of Flemish genre painting and to derive inspiration from teh great medieval master of the bizarre, Hieronymus Bosch. Bruegel's paintings chronicle the festivals, ceremonies, traditions, and everyday events of 16th century peasant life. Under his scrutiny the country scene reveals itself in fine detail; characters reveal themselves through their actions, or by virtue of a gesture or grimace. There are no individual portraits and the figures cut a pattern of exalted movement on a canvas animated by the rhythm of color. This edit