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Pieter Bruegel c. 1525-1569 Life and Work
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Milites requiescentes
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1525 Pieter Bruegel's year of birth is unknown; it
presumably lay somewhere between 1525 and 1530. Nor do we
know where he was born, but it was probably in Breda, in the
north of Brabant.
1527 Birth of Philip II of Habsburg, son of Emperor Charles
V, to whose family belong not only Spain but also the
Netherlands.
1528 Death of Albrecht Durer: birth of Paolo Caliari, known
as Veronese.
1540 Michelangelo paints The Last Judgement in Rome. Gerhard
Mercator, the most important Netherlands cartographer along
with Abraham Ortelius (later Bruegel's friend), publishes
his "Globus Terrae".
1545 Bruegel probably studies under Pieter Coeck van Aelst
in Antwerp, until 1550.
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Mountain landscape with a
deep valley
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1550 Bruegel at work on a (lost) altar for the Mecheln
glovers' guild.
1551 "Peeter Brueghels" is accepted as a master into the
Antwerp artists' guild, the Guild of St. Luke.
1552 (or 1551) Bruegel travels via Lyons to Italy, returning
over the Swiss Alps. While in Rome, he is believed to have
worked together with Giulio Clovio, the miniaturist.
1556 Bruegel produces drawings in Antwerp for Hieronymus
Cock's printing shop, "The Four Winds". Among works of his
to be printed there are The Big Fish Eating the Little Fish
and The Ass in the School.
1557 A series of seven engravings with the Deadly Sins
follows.
1559 A series of seven engravings with the Virtues appears.
The painter changes the way
he spells his name, signing himself no longer Brueghel but
Bruegel. He paints The Fight between Carnival and Lent.
King
Philip II of Spain, successor since 1556 of Charles V.
leaves the Netherlands, where he has been dwelling for some
considerable time, never to return. He makes Madrid his seat
of government. Margaret of Parma, his half-sister, is
appointed Regent of the Netherlands. The Netherlander demand
the removal of Spanish troops.
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Prospectus Tyburtinus
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1560 The dissection of corpses, previously forbidden by the
Church, is henceforth permitted for research purposes.
1562 Bruegel paints The Fall of the Rebel Angels,
The Suicide of Saul and Two Monkeys, among other works. He
probably travels to Amsterdam, and thereafter settles in
Brussels.
1563 The wedding takes place in the Brussels Church of
Notre-Dame de la Cha-pelle between "Peeter brugel" and "Mayken
cocks", the latter the daughter of the painter's former
teacher, Pieter Coeck.
The Netherlands refuse to pay King Philip higher taxes.
1564 Birth of his son Pieter (later known as "Hell" Bruegel)
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Insidiosus auceps (The Crafty
Bird Catcher
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1565 The paintings of the months or seasons are executed.
1566 The Antwerp merchant Nicolas Jong-helinck hands
over 39 paintings to the city as surety; 16 of the works are by Bruegel (The
Tower of Babel, The Procession to Calvary and The Twelve Months.) Religious
fanatics, carrying out the so-called "breaking of the images", plunder churches
and monasteries.
1567 King Philip II despatches Duke Alba with 60,000
soldiers. Margaret of Parma resigns as Regent. Alba's "Council of Troubles"
sentences 8,000 Netherlands "rabble-rousers" to death; Counts Egmont and Hoorne
are arrested.
1568 Birth of the artist's second son, Jan (later
known as "Velvet" Bruegel). Bruegel paints The Parable of the Blind,
The Magpie on the Gallows, The Misanthrope, The Peasant and the
Birdnester, The Cripples and Storm at Sea. Egmont and Hoorne
are executed.
1569 Pieter Bruegel dies, supposedly on 5 December.
He is buried in the Church of Notre-Dame dc la Chapelle in Brussels. Open
rebellion by the Netherlanders against Spain.
1604 Carel van Mander publishes Het Schilderboeck,
a description of various artists and their works, among which are those by
Pieter Brueeel the Elder.
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 Pagus nemorosus
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Alpine landscape
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Alpine landscape
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Landscape with a
castle on a rock
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Landscape with a town
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Landscape with an
artist sketching
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Landscape with two mules
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Rocky landscape
with a castle
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