Bruegel. The Complete Works

(Hardback)

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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 would eventually increasingly turn to painting, working for the cultural elite of Antwerp and Brussels.

This monograph is a testament to Bruegel's evolution as an artist, one who bravely confronted the issues of his day all the while proposing new inventions and solutions. Rather than idealizing reality, he addressed the horrors of religious warfare and took a critical stand against the institution of the Church. To this end, he developed his own pictorial language of dissidence, lacing innocuous everyday scenes with subliminal statements in order to escape repercussions.

To produce this XXL-sized collection, TASCHEN undertook a comprehensive photographic campaign, capturing all the breadth and splendid detail of Bruegel's oeuvre like never before. The result gathers all 40 paintings, 65 drawings, and 89 engravings in pristine reproductions-each piece a unique witness to both the religious mores and the close-knit folk culture of Bruegel's time.

Marking the 450th anniversary of his death and his first ever monographic exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, this volume is the most immersive journey into Bruegel's unique visual universe.

Reviews

Packed with superlative reproductions. * The Times *
One of the most imaginative, original and captivating artists in history. * The Guardian *
Like Shakespeare, Bruegel can capture the theatre of life in scenes that are comic yet full of acute psychological portraits. * The Guardian *
Bruegel. The Complete Works bring his teeming scenes to life. * The Times *
An Old Master monograph that really can claim space on the coffee table as not only a beautiful tactile object - exquisite paper, outstanding quality of reproduction, sumptuous design - but, unusually, for its absorbing, accessible, penetrating text, bringing to life a whole late-medieval world of people and ideas. * The Financial Times *

Author Bio

Jrgen Mller holds the chair of Early Modern and Modern Art History at the Technical University of Dresden. He studied Art History at the universities of Bochum, Munster, Pisa, Paris, and Amsterdam, and has worked as an art critic and curator of numerous exhibitions. He is also the editor of TASCHENs movies by decade series. Thomas Schauerte is the director of the municipal museums in Aschaffenburg. Until 2019 he was the manager of the Albrecht Drer House, the City Museum and the art collections of the City of Nuremberg. He is a specialist in graphic art whose research focusses on Albrecht Drer and the art of the Middle Ages and the Baroque period.