![]() The inscription on the print (but not in the drawing) clarifies us about the meaning of the image, which refers to the fierce competition in Antwerp at the time: “Look, my son, I’ve known for a long time that the big fish devours the little one.”īig Fishes Eat Little Fishes, engraving, by Pieter Bruegel The Elder, ca. ![]() In the boat in the first plane, we see another fisherman at work, and sitting in front of him father and son, the father seemingly talking to his small kid while pointing with his hand the giant fish on shore. As he opens the fish, from its wound and through its mouth spill more fishes that in turn carry smaller fishes on their mouths. At the right of the print we see a man with a curious hat trying to slit-open a giant fish using an also large knife. The style we see here is reminiscent of the art of Hieronymus Bosch. One of his earlier engravings Big Fishes Eat Little Fishes (London), shows the characteristic style of Bruegel’s work: the juxtaposition of entertainment with serious moral instructions. Such designs were engraved by Hieronymus Cock, the most famous printmaker established in Antwerp at that time, with whom Bruegel collaborated until the end of his years. ![]() ![]() These were maritime views of the Gulf of Naples and other Italian landscapes, which perhaps denote that his initial purpose was to dedicate himself to works of applied art.īruegel was back in Antwerp in 1555, and from the following year he devoted himself to draw compositions of satirical or moral intent on grotesque or fantastic subjects intended for engraving, which are very reminiscent of the style that Bosch employed in his symbolic compositions. In the course of said trip Bruegel carried out some gouache* paintings on paper or parchment. After joining that corporation, Bruegel made a trip to Italy in 1552-1553, during which he arrived in Sicily and lived for a year in Rome, where he was in contact with the illuminator Giulio Clovio (whom in turn met a few years later with El Greco). The first known document that refers to Bruegel concerns his apprenticeship in Antwerp, together with the “Romanist” painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst, and his entry after 1551 into the Antwerp painters’ guild. Probably born in the Dutch city of Breda (Netherlands), between 15, he died in Brussels in 1569.īecause of Bruegel’s idiosyncrasy, and even because of the way in which he revalued key aspects of Bosch‘s paintings in his works (which shows he had deep concerns for humanistic matters), this draughtsman and painter set himself apart from the artistic environment that prevailed during his lifetime in the country where he resided. We are referring to Pieter Bruegel (or Brueghel, as at first he signed his last name), known in art history as Bruegel the Elder, for being the stem of a long-lasting family of painters who continued their artistic activity until the end of the 17th century. The protagonist and promoter of this innovation was a Dutch artist by birth but trained in Antwerp (not exactly as a painter, but as a draughtsman), and who also traveled around Italy as did the so-called “ Romanist” painters. Along with the general evolution that painting underwent during the 16th century both in Flanders and in the northern part of the Netherlands, there was an important ‘individual’ phenomenon that differed notably from this impulse and that had fruitful consequences for painting in years to come, especially in the Flemish and Dutch schools that during the 17th century dedicated to evoke scenes of peasant life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |