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.

Author: Elizabeth Alice Honig
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Published: 01/03/2023
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.60w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9781789146752
ISBN10: 1789146755
BISAC Categories:
- Art | History | Renaissance
- Biography & Autobiography | Artists, Architects, Photographers
- History | Europe | Renaissance

About the Author
Elizabeth Alice Honig is professor of European art history at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Jan Brueghel and the Senses of Scale and Painting and the Market in Early Modern Antwerp.