Bruegel: peasants, proverbs and landscapes
Bruegel: peasants, proverbs and landscapes
Lecturer: Paula Nuttall
The art of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30-1569) is a byword for the depiction of genre subjects and landscapes.
This lecture explores his work and its meanings, from his beginnings in the style of Hieronymus Bosch, to the development of a highly original art form that offered an alternative to the Italianate art then in vogue.
Working for an elite circle of connoisseurs, at the end of his short life he produced some of his greatest masterpieces, including the Peasant Dance and Peasant Wedding, and the lyrical Months of the Year, which rank amongst the greatest achievements of Netherlandish painting.
Paula Nuttall is the Director of the V&A Medieval and Renaissance Year Course. She is a specialist in Renaissance art, both Italian and northern European, on which she has published widely, notably From Flanders to Florence: the Impact of Netherlandish Painting 1400-1500 (Yale, 2004).
Paula has collaborated on major exhibitions including Jan van Eyck: an Optical Revolution (Ghent, 2020) and was formerly a lecturer at the Courtauld Institute and the British Institute of Florence.