Brueghel (or Bruegel)

Family of Flemish painters. Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c. 1525–1569) was one of the greatest artists of his time. His pictures of peasant life helped to establish genre painting, and he also popularized works illustrating proverbs, such as The Blind Leading the Blind (1568; Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). A contemporary taste for the macabre can be seen in The Triumph of Death (1562; Prado, Madrid), which clearly shows the influence of Hieronymus Bosch. One of his best-known works is Hunters in the Snow (1565; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).

The elder Pieter was nicknamed ‘Peasant’ Brueghel, referring to the subjects of his paintings. Two of his sons were also painters. Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638), called ‘Hell’ Brueghel, specialized in religious subjects, and another son, Jan Brueghel (1568–1625), called ‘Velvet’ Brueghel, painted flowers, landscapes, and seascapes.

Pieter the Elder was born in a village near Bruges. He became a pupil assistant of Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1578) in Antwerp. During a visit to Italy in 1552 he was more impressed by Alpine landscape than by Italian art. On his return to Antwerp he worked for the engraver Jerome Coecke, designing satirical and allegorical prints. These, and some of his paintings, such as The Fall of the Rebel Angels (Brussels), borrow fantasy from Hieronymus Bosch, but between 1558 and 1569 his personal genius was expressed in a series of works depicting peasant life and landscape. They include The Peasant Dance and The Wedding Feast (Vienna), the Massacre of the Innocents (Vienna), and The Census of Bethlehem (Brussels) – these two perhaps a covert reference to the Spanish repression in the Netherlands – and the series of the months, of which five remain, including February (now known as Hunters in the Snow).

Pieter Brueghel the Younger copied many of his father's works in a less polished style, while Jan painted still lifes, landscapes, and seascapes with a delicate finish that inspired a number of other artists. He was a friend of Rubens and collaborated with him on such works as the Paradise (Mauritshuis). The sons of Pieter the Younger and Jan were also artists.