Folk stories: An eye on everyday peasant life At a time when artists were still widely preoccupied with religious or mythological subject matter, the great Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525-1569) defied the trend. Earning the nickname Peasant Bruegel, he turned his attention instead to the humble and the everyday, immersing himself in rural or small-town communities and painting the everyday existence and customs of peasant life. In their evocation of the agriculture, festivals, meals, dances and games that made up peasant life of this period, Brugels paintings are a unique witness to a now vanished folk culture. More than socio-historical evidence, they also display a brilliantly sophisticated artistic design and a great mastery in the use of landscape. Many of Bruegels works show the influence of the Dutch master painter Hieronymus Bosch, and, like Bosch, Bruegel also developed an intricate language of visual allegory and idiom. This comprehensive introduction features the complete paintings of Bruegel, including the Prados The Wine of Saint Martins Day, identified as a Bruegel original in 2010.

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