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Bruegel : the complete graphic works / Maarten Bassens, Joris Van Grieken.

By: Bassens, Maarten [author].
Contributor(s): Stock, Jan van der [author] | Grieken, Joris van, 1978- [author] | Watteeuw, Lieve, 1959- [author] | Bruegel, Pieter, approximately 1525-1569 [artist] | Bibliothèque royale de Belgique [host institution].
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London : Thames & Hudson, 2019Description: 284 pages : illustrations (some colour), maps (some colour) ; 28 x 31 cm.Content type: text | still image | cartographic image Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780500239995 (hardback); 0500239991 (hardback).Subject(s): Bruegel, Pieter, approximately 1525-1569 -- Exhibitions | Prints, Renaissance | Prints, Flemish | Painting, Renaissance | Painting, FlemishDDC classification: 769.92 BRU
Contents:
Summary: "Around 1555, following his travels in Italy, Pieter Bruegel the Elder start to design prints for publication by Hieronymus Cock, an ambitious painter from Antwerp. The results swiftly won the young artist fame throughout Europe. The large number of surviving drawings reveals the extraordinary care he took in preparing these designs, which were cut in copper by talented engravers. Bruegel's 'Large Landscapes' series established him as an influential innovator in landscape art, while prints such as 'Big Fish Eat Little Fish' and 'The Seven Deadly Sins' cycle proved he could hold his own with the great Hieronymus Bosch. Other prints featured satirical allegories, episodes from the Bible and his celebrated peasant scenes. As in his other works, Bruegel portrayed human beings with all theirs strengths--and even more so, their weaknesses--in original and frequently humorous images. Engravings, etchings and the occasional woodcut form an essential part of his oeuvre, which has lost none of its expressive power 450 years after the artist's death. Recent historical, archival and art technological research offers a fresh insight into the overall body of Bruegel prints produced during or shortly after his lifetime. Eighty-nine individual compositions are discussed at length in this magnificently illustrated catalogue raisonné, which includes new and detailed descriptions of the different states and editions. Extensive attention is also paid to the creation, interpretation and reception of the prints that shaped public's wider image of the Elder Bruegel for centuries" - publisher's description.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Barcode
General lending MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending 769.92 BRU (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 00232585
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

One of the greatest Netherlandish artists, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) is best known today for his paintings of peasant life. Yet it was above all through his exceptional graphic work that he achieved widespread fame during the 16th century. This luxurious book offers readers the opportunity to get up close and personal with Bruegel's famous prints. Published as part of this special Bruegel year, it accompanies the exhibition at the Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels, which is renowned as a pioneer in Bruegel scholarship and holds an unparalleled collection of the artist's graphic work.

"Published on the occasion of the exhibition 'The World of Bruegel in Black and White,' KBR, Brussels, From 15 October 2019 to 16 February 2020"--page 284.

"First published in the United States of America in 2020 by Thames & Hudson, Inc., ... New York, New York ... "--Colophon.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 278-281) and index.

Foreword -- Pieter Bruegel (1526/27-1569), draughtsman and painter in Antwerp : an attempt at reconstructing his network / Jan van der Stock -- Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hieronymus Cock, Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle and the beginning of the Italian War of 1551-1559 : A hypothesis / Joris van Grieken -- Bruegel in all his states : how small details in the printing plate can make a world of difference / Maarten Bassens -- Bruegel's drawing for The Dirty Bride (c. 1566) : A FINGERPRINT project case study / Lieve Watteeuw -- Bruegel rediscovered : A research tradition at the Brussels Print Room / Maarten Bassens -- Catalogue.

"Around 1555, following his travels in Italy, Pieter Bruegel the Elder start to design prints for publication by Hieronymus Cock, an ambitious painter from Antwerp. The results swiftly won the young artist fame throughout Europe. The large number of surviving drawings reveals the extraordinary care he took in preparing these designs, which were cut in copper by talented engravers. Bruegel's 'Large Landscapes' series established him as an influential innovator in landscape art, while prints such as 'Big Fish Eat Little Fish' and 'The Seven Deadly Sins' cycle proved he could hold his own with the great Hieronymus Bosch. Other prints featured satirical allegories, episodes from the Bible and his celebrated peasant scenes. As in his other works, Bruegel portrayed human beings with all theirs strengths--and even more so, their weaknesses--in original and frequently humorous images. Engravings, etchings and the occasional woodcut form an essential part of his oeuvre, which has lost none of its expressive power 450 years after the artist's death. Recent historical, archival and art technological research offers a fresh insight into the overall body of Bruegel prints produced during or shortly after his lifetime. Eighty-nine individual compositions are discussed at length in this magnificently illustrated catalogue raisonné, which includes new and detailed descriptions of the different states and editions. Extensive attention is also paid to the creation, interpretation and reception of the prints that shaped public's wider image of the Elder Bruegel for centuries" - publisher's description.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Flanders deemed 2019 "Bruegel Year" to celebrate the achievements of the Netherlandish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525--69). Bassens and Van Grieken are both curators at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), and they used its rich collection of Bruegel's graphic works to create this volume and the exhibition it catalogues (The World of Bruegel in Black and White). Technological advances in fingerprint analysis and digital imaging have given birth to new scholarship on technique, context, and conservation--scholarship that sheds light on Bruegel's process. The volume includes essays on Bruegel's art network, a reevaluation of Karel van Mander's 1604 biography (specifically of Bruegel's instructors and travel companions), and a reassessment of the commercial milieu of Renaissance printmaking. A technical case study of an unfinished woodblock print provides an understanding of how the print might have looked if finished, and a history of the KBR Print Room explores the central role of this institution in collecting, preserving, and showcasing important works on paper. Finally, the beautifully illustrated catalogue is thematically arranged, with new technical and historical analysis focused on confirming the attribution of approximately 70 original prints, Bruegel's working methods, and his artistic and publishing intentions. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Allison Lee Palmer, University of Oklahoma

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Maarten Bassens and Joris Van Grieken are both curators at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels. Lieve Watteeuw is head of the Book Heritage Lab at the University of Leuven. Jan Van der Stock is a professor at the University of Leuven, where he lectures on Medieval and Renaissance Arts, Graphic Arts, Iconography, Iconology and Curatorship.
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