Pieter Bruegel

Hello, welcome. We're going to talk about Peter Bruegel, a Flemish painter. He was born around 1530, He died in 1569, so he painted for only about 40 years, and we know of around 40 of his paintings. And also, before painting paintings, he is a draftsman and engraver, very important in that capacity as well. Travel to Italy, as all painters did at that time, where the Italian model It has clearly become the dominant one. Thinking about the 15th century, with two production centers the main centers of art, Flanders, the Netherlands, what we call Flemish painting in the north, Italy in the south. In the 16th century, in terms of art production, this remains true. but let's say that the idea of Renaissance Italian arts and aesthetics has become in the main, also in the north. And in this sense, Bruegel is interesting because One has the feeling that one is always looking for an alternative. At first, he drew pictures for a company, a publisher, what would be a publishing house today. Make engravings from them; hire an engraver to create an engraving from those drawings. Yes, it's interesting because the first ones are very forest-like in content, like this one. The big fish eats the small fish. A father at the bottom, sitting in a boat, He tells his wise son: the big fish eats the small fish. A very typical social critique throughout the entire course of Bruegel's life. Observer of the world, who points out things as they are, with a critical perspective, often also satirical. One interesting thing, very forest-like images, but not only that, in the lower left corner of this engraving I am showing you The signature of Bosch can be seen. Bosch is dead when this print was made. Bruegel and the publisher he works with are selling prints as if they were by Bosch. The following image I am showing you is from another stamp, also very forest-like. In this case, an image of Sloth. You see the personification of that concept. from that capital sin, captain, in the center of the scene, a woman lying down, doing nothing Wandering atop a donkey. A very forest-like image, with multiple detailed elements. These beings that are half animal, half human. In this case, in the lower left part You can see the signature, which already belongs to Bruegel himself. A curious detail: Bruegel signs here. With H inserted, GH. Starting one year later, in 1559, he will always sign without H. From around 1562 until his death, seven years later, he painted the vast majority of the paintings he creates. It's curious, the career of a man who seems to be a draftsman, drawing engravings at first, and then suddenly becoming a painter and dedicates the rest of her short life to painting pictures, among which are some of the most astonishing paintings ever created. Well, a triumph of death, very forest-like. On the right side, the armies of death, They're all skeletons; they're putting people into a large catafalque. I say, a very pessimistic vision, just like its inspiration, Bosch. I believe that in Bruegel we often see a kind of worldview, an idea of life in the world. Pessimistic, negative, yet nevertheless we often see a certain sympathy toward those who inhabit that world, As if life were a very bleak screenplay, but the actors were people. something like that, which deserves our sympathy. A great deal of disorder, a very strong aesthetic inspiration from the medieval style and again from Bosch. We do not know where the essential is, we do not know where to direct our gaze. Wonderful the effect of distance in the upper part of the painting, Where do you see the horizon with those ships burning. It is not the main aspect of this painting, but it is indeed a great virtue of Bruegel's art, very often. Fix your attention here on these large wheels, this kind of forks or catafalques, They are large logs of dry wood with wheels. We know from contemporary newspapers, there is a famous diary kept by a Swiss medical family, They are called Plater, who travel across Europe and tell us that at the entrances and exits of cities These species of places existed where samples of people who had been executed were left. Police authority was exercised through example and fear, doing things of this nature. Curious details. Within this context of a painting with a very medieval aesthetic my concept too, and very Boschian, of a disorder, we don't know where to look There is a kind of attempt within that aesthetic to achieve order. I say this because, if you look at the bottom part, there are six pairs of figures. On the left, a king with a skeleton; on the right, a couple, a woman singing and a man playing a musical instrument, and among them four others. One has the impression that Bruegel is trying to find a new way to organize a pictorial plane. He is seeking a new aesthetic. That is the most interesting aspect of this painter to me. Paint in an era when the dominance of Italian relational aesthetics is absolute. He knows him well because he has been in Italy for nearly three years, from 1551 to 1554, and has been in Rome. We know that he has reached as far as the southern part of the Italian peninsula, and has traveled extensively and thoroughly through it. He knows that aesthetic very well, and yet the feeling one has is that he is resisting it. In a way, put positively, it's trying to offer an alternative. And I say this because there is an order here, there is symmetry, there is geometry in the lower part which seems to contradict what happens in the rest of the painting. And another thing as well. If you look at one of the figures in the painting, at the bottom part, who is wearing a red sweater and blue or green tights There, we also see a figure painted in perspective, in foreshortening. a kind of boast, a demonstration of the painter's ability to accomplish the difficult aspects of painting, such as rendering that kind of foreshortening. A very elegant drawing, the kind of drawing Bruegel would make to give to a publishing entrepreneur. who in turn would hire a engraver to turn it into an engraving. Notice how interesting the figure on the right is here. This is what I was talking about earlier. when I was talking about this attempt to create a new canon. The figure is thicker than would be usual in Italy. Bruegel is offering elegance in the pose he has. Notice the contrast between the twins' feet. Observe the contrapposto position. And in that posture there is an elegance, just as there is in the man drinking water. from that large water jug at the center of the scene, which on one hand represents an alternative to the Italian model And on the other hand, they are simultaneously inspired by him. This part of the painting seems very interesting to me. Artists, painters create mental worlds that they inhabit with physical types. that each of them creates something, and that these are very different from one another. The typical Bruegelian figure, the archetypal physical type of Bruegel, are rather this drawing The two we see in the center, bent over, gathering the wheat. These characters are more dominated by the trunk and less by the limbs, less stylized. The heads often appear not to be supported by a neck, but rather to be directly attached to the shoulders. Often they don't look at us or have their heads covered. I have the feeling that Bruegel has created a type, but suddenly faced with the might of the challenge which comes from Italy, from a highly stylized and mannered art already at this moment, He also wants to compete or offer an alternative, to present his version in which the Bruegelian type mixes with that more Italian type. That's what these foreground figures do. I believe one of Bruegel's greatest virtues is his depiction of distance, a legacy inherited from Patinir. Fix your attention on this magnificent landscape, a large painting, approximately 1.70 meters wide by 1.20 meters high. An alpine landscape, with an immense distance in the far left background. The distance, as always, that invites us to dream. The distant location, which we all live in the mountains, which we all live on the seashore. That is where it seems to focus, that is what Bruegel's painting offers to our mind. From that immense size, figures rise carrying what looks like a large cannon, approaching us And around those trees, we see the center of the scene. There is a depiction of Saint Paul's conversion, just as he has fallen from his horse while persecuting the Jews. toward Damascus and has converted to Christianity. However, the landscape is what interests the painter here, clearly. And very interesting once again, especially the sense of distance in this painting, but also, if you look at the figure on the right, that man on horseback, dressed in yellow, With hand behind, incredibly elegant, exquisite in its elegance. Pay attention to the neck's posture, the posture of the figure itself, The relationship between the horse's neck and the horse in front of it. Once again, if you compare that figure with the others in the painting, Well, you see these two types of Bruegelian characters, the physical types that populate his paintings. Those with barely any neck, whose faces we often don't see They are looking backward or have their heads covered—very typical of their painting as well. And compared to them, others are exquisite, incredibly elegant. Perhaps the most famous series of paintings by Bruegel is called The Seasons of the Year; there are six of them. Five are preserved; it's unusual to paint six instead of four seasons. but back then it was done, and we know that back then, for example, Sometimes spring was thought of as two separate seasons of the year. and in summer as well, two separate seasons of the year. Here we see summer; I'm going to show you three. Consider how beautiful is the evocation of a humid day, of heat instead of the north, With high humidity, great heaviness in the air, an atmosphere that infects those who move about it. and they also carry out their work heavily, as if the weather, the vegetation, the activity of people, all were part of the same thing. The figures in the center, eating, one is looking at us—very beautiful details. Bruegel is very sensitive to what painting has in terms of design, of surface, not only through the illusion of depth, and it is so through its trees, especially the branches in the upper parts of the trees as if scattered across the surface of the painting. It also strikes me that he paints a tree that is nearly遮蔽ing the church behind it. as if the painter did not want us to see it. Remember that painting is a creation, an illusion. Bruegel isn't here painting what he sees; he has decided to paint that church almost hidden by the tree. And with her, I think what he's looking for is attention, in a way. Perhaps waking up is to make us seek, and also to seek the illusion of reality. because it makes us think that he painted it that way because that's how it was, and it just didn't look better. Another of these paintings from the same cycle of the seasons, This is the livestock descending from the mountain. The most beautiful thing about this for me, once again, is the opportunity for distance. Look at that sky, how the clouds are drifting away, carrying our gaze along that valley until its end. It's a truly feeling that we have all experienced in nature at some point. and that in Bruegel's paintings we come back to life. This winter scene depicts hunters arriving heavily on foot, accompanied by their dogs. One of the dogs is looking at us; they've barely caught anything. One of the hunters carries a fox hanging from his back. Figures on the left are preparing a fire to carry out a massacre. Many figures in the background of the painting are entertained. Winter is when the least amount of work can be done in the field. And therefore, it was precisely then that there was the most time for fun in those days. Very fun here, exploring the canvas and searching in the lower right corner A large mill with a large wheel, a watermill. The wheel has frozen on the bridge near a woman carrying some wood on her back. People over there doing all sorts of things. The contrast between the large figures in the foreground and the small ones in the background Makes the landscape appear immense. It also has that effect; I have that feeling myself. The black bird we see flying makes everything behind it feel like space. And the space between the bird and the distant mountain makes the painting seem immense once again. Very beautiful, just like the previous ones, that same feeling that everything is part of a cycle And we are also so, and we are no different from the place we inhabit in nature. Just as the seasons change and change at a certain pace And that rhythm implies transformation, since figures move forward with a similar pace. Heavily, we can almost imagine how hard it must be for them to lift their feet from the snow. to these hunters we see here. It is marvelous how Bruegel has the ability to evoke distance. And by doing so, we feel longing, and in longing, our capacity to imagine seems to expand. I want to tell you one more thing before I finish. Peter Bruegel had two painter sons, one named Jan Bruegel and the other Peter Bruegel. We usually call him Peter the Younger. We write your surnames with an H inserted, unlike your father's. Partly because they signed this way, but also to distinguish them. None of them were formed with him, as they were children when he died. Jan is a great painter; I'll talk about him in another video. He often worked with Rubens. Peter Bruegel the Younger, however, is a painter who dedicates his entire life to making copies of his father's paintings. With the materials he has inherited—surely cardboard—those drawings the father used to make his paintings. Not only does he make the copies himself, but he also hires other painters to do the same under his brand. To give you an idea of just how big this industry was, There is a painting of which we know that Peter the Younger made up to 176 versions, a painting of his father. Here I show you a census in Bethlehem; regarding the son, an original exists. There are 13 versions painted by the son of that original father. I will show you two interesting details; on the left, a detail from the painting by Peter Bruegel the Younger. and to the right of his father's original. You see a frozen river, on the frozen river you see a barrel covered with snow, It is the same in both paintings; in the painting of the father, there is a bird on top of the barrel. And a man putting on skates—the father has added more detail, has painted more things. But an even more curious detail is that beneath that barrel, you can see a kind of white oval The son is in the square on the left, and the father is in the black square on the right. Think about it: what has happened here is that the son has started working based on the father's cardboard. it has the outlines drawn of everything that happens in the painting, but it lacks the colors, for example and does not have what is inside each of those profiles or shapes. He saw an oval shape drawn on the ice and thought it was an islet covered with snow. yet he has never seen the original of his father, in fact, instead of being a snowy islet, it is a hole in the ice. Well, lately I've been noticing that the paintings by Peter Bruegel the Younger They are being sold at extremely high prices, and exhibitions are being held on the subject of Bruegel. Taking advantage of the slight confusion surrounding these surnames. Simply remember that there is a very great difference in quality between Peter Bruegel the Elder and his son, who devoted himself to copying his paintings, Peter Bruegel the Younger. We'll leave it there and see you in another video.