Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), the famous Flemish painter, is considered the most important Northern painter of the mid-16th century. He established the independence of landscape and genre subjects (scenes of everyday life) from traditional figural painting.
Little is known about Bruegel's life or beliefs. Although he frequently depicted scenes of rustic life, "Peasant Bruegel," as he was known, was not a peasant but a townsman. His friends and patrons were humanists. Unlike his predecessors, Bruegel painted almost entirely for private patrons and produced no surviving works for churches or other public buildings. Consequently, he was known in his own time primarily as an inventor of moralistic figural scenes and landscapes, which were reproduced in engravings by other artists.
Many of Bruegel's paintings have been interpreted as disguised criticism of the harsh Spanish control of the Netherlands. Bruegel was patronized, however, by Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granville, advisor to Philip II, and about 1563 he moved from Antwerp to Brussels, the seat of the Spanish government in the Netherlands. Given the sparse and contradictory evidence, Bruegel's political convictions remain unknown. Modern scholars are also unable to determine his religious beliefs. Bruegel probably viewed organized religion as an obstacle between man and God; his “Parable of the Blind”, also known as “The Blind Leading the Blind” (1568; Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples) may be interpreted as illustrating this idea.
Upon completing his artistic training in 1551, Bruegel travelled to Italy. In spite of the influences of this journey, he continued throughout his life to paint in a manner that was strongly Northern in both subject and style. Only close study of his works reveals that he absorbed figural poses and compositional ideas from Italian art. The journey through the Alps had a more obvious impact on Bruegel's artistic imagination. In a number of his landscapes, among them Hunters in the Snow (1565; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), tall mountains are placed in the backgrounds of his panoramic views while the centers and foregrounds depict typical Netherlandish settings and subjects.
Bruegel's painting style changed considerably during the short span of his career. His early works (until c.1562) are characterized by a multiplicity of small elements, an overall composition, and a bird's-eye perspective. A typical example is “Netherlandish Proverbs” (1559; Staatliche Museum, West Berlin). Here, as in so many of his paintings, Bruegel satirizes the folly and sinfulness of humankind.
Two religious paintings, “The Suicide of Saul” (1562) and “The Conversion of St. Paul” (1567; both Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), exemplify the changes that took place in Bruegel's style during the mid-1560s. These two paintings also show Bruegel's practice of depicting religious subjects as contemporary events. After c.1562, Bruegel's compositions were increasingly concentrated and were often organized along diagonals; the main action was more frequently presented at eye level.
During the last years of his life Bruegel usually painted figures that appear more monumental in scale and closer to the viewer. As in “The Blind Leading the Blind”, he steadily reduced his cast of characters to a minimum in order to concentrate the composition on the essentials of the story.
Two of Peter Bruegel's children were painters. Peter ("Hell") Bruegel the Younger (1564-1638), frequently imitated his father's works. Jan I ("Velvet") Bruegel the Elder (1568-1625), the more talented of the two sons, was court painter to the regents of the Southern Netherlands after 1610. Jan I favoured a miniaturistic style. His landscapes, such as “Outskirts of a Village” (1597; State Art Collections, Kassel), differ considerably from the panoramic "world views" of his father; their mood, like their spaces, is more intimate. In his life-size flower paintings, such as “Flowers in a Blue Vase” (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), Jan I created an encyclopedic arrangement of the many individual flowers he studied from life. In his allegorical and religious paintings, such as “Paradise” (c.1620; Mauritshuis, The Hague), he occasionally collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens and other painters.
Three of Peter Bruegel the Elder's grandsons were painters : Peter III (1589-1634), son of Peter the Younger; and Ambrosius (1617-1675) and Jan the Younger (1601-1678), both sons of Jan I. Each imitated the work of his father. Five sons of Jan Bruegel the Younger were artists: Jan Peter, Abraham, Filips, Ferdinand, and Jan Baptist. Abraham (1631-1690), a still-life painter, was the most talented. None of these members of the Bruegel family attained the artistic stature of Peter the Elder.