Pieter Bruegel and the Idea of Human Nature

A fresh account of the life, ideas, and art of the beloved Northern Renaissance master.

In sixteenth-century Northern Europe, during a time of increasing religious and political conflict, Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel explored how people perceived human nature. Bruegel turned his critical eye and peerless paintbrush to mankind's labors and pleasures, its foibles and rituals of daily life, portraying landscapes, peasant life, and biblical scenes in startling detail. Much like the great humanist scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam, Bruegel questioned how well we really know ourselves and also how we know, or visually read, others. His work often represented mankind's ignorance and insignificance, emphasizing the futility of ambition and the absurdity of pride.

This superbly illustrated volume examines how Bruegel's art and ideas enabled people to ponder what it meant to be human. Published to coincide with the four-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of Bruegel's death, it will appeal to all those interested in art and philosophy, the Renaissance, and Flemish painting.

About the author

Elizabeth Alice Honig is Professor of Northern European Art at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Jan Brueghel and the Senses of Scale (2016).

Summary

Shows how Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel redefined people’s perception of human nature.

Product details

• Authors: Elizabeth Alice Honig, Honig Elizabeth Alice
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.11.2022
• EAN: 9781789146752
• ISBN: 978-1-78914-675-2
• No. of pages: 272
• Series: Renaissance Lives
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; ART / History / General, ART / Individual Artists / Monographs, History of Art, Renaissance art, Individual artists, art monographs, Renaissance style