Bruegel The Complete Paintings 40th Ed
Taschen
The life and times of Pieter Bruegel the Elder c 1526 30 1569 were marked by stark cultural conflict He witnessed religious wars the Duke of Alba s brutal rule as governor of the Netherlands and the palpable effects of the Inquisition To this day the Flemish artist remains shrouded in mystery We know neither where nor exactly when he was born But while early scholarship emphasized the vernacular character of his painting and graphic work modern research has attached greater importance to its humanistic content Starting out as a print designer for publisher Hieronymus Cock Bruegel produced numerous print series that were distributed throughout Europe These depicted vices and virtues alongside jolly peasant festivals and sweeping landscape panoramas He then increasingly turned to painting working for the cultural elite of Antwerp and Brussels Rather than idealizing reality he bravely confronted the issues of his day addressing the horrors of religious warfare and taking a critical stand against the institution of the Church To this end Bruegel developed his own pictorial language of dissidence lacing innocuous everyday scenes with subliminal statements in order to escape repercussions This book is derived from our XXL monograph which saw TASCHEN undertake a comprehensive photographic survey of the artist s oeuvre The result boasts exceptional details and reproductions unveiling Bruegel s larger than life universe with unprecedented clarity This volume in celebration of our 40th anniversary presents all 40 paintings accompanied by enlarged details and accessible immersive texts
