At the beginning of October, the Kunsthistorisches Museum will
open the first-ever major monograph show dedicated to the
greatest Netherlandish painter of the sixteenth century: Pieter
Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30‒1569). The exhibition
commemorates the 450th anniversary of his death.
During his lifetime, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was already among
the period’s most sought-after artists, with his works achieving
exceptionally high prices. Only about forty paintings and sixty
prints by him are all that has come down to us. The twelve panels
in the Kunsthistorisches Museum are by far the largest collection
of Bruegels in the world, a fact we owe to 16th century Habsburg
connoisseurs who already appreciated the exceptional quality of
his works and strove to acquire these prestigious paintings.
Bruegel revolutionised landscape and genre painting, and his
compositions continue to elicit varied and controversial
interpretations. The depth and breadth of his pictorial world and
the perceptive powers of observation he employs in his depictions
of quotidian life continue to fascinate all who encounter his
works.
A once-in-a-lifetime exhibition
Museums and private collectors count Bruegel’s works among
their most precious and fragile possessions. Most of the panels
have never been loaned for an exhibition. By bringing together
over 90 works by the master, the exhibition in Vienna has
assembled for the very first time a comprehensive overview of
Bruegel’s oeuvre: comprising around 30 panel paintings (i.e. threequarters
of extant paintings) and almost half of his preserved
drawings and prints, the show offers visitors a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to immerse themselves in the artist’s complex
pictorial world, to study his stylistic development and his creative
process, and to get to know his method of work, his pictorial
humour and his unique narrative powers.
The highlights in the exhibition include, for example, The
Haymaking from the Lobkowicz Collections, Prague, View of the
Bay of Naples from the Galleria Doria Pamphilij in Rome, Two
Monkeys from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, The Triumph of
Death from the Prado in Madrid, Dulle Griet from the Museum
Mayer van de Berg in Antwerp, The Tower of Babel from the
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, The Adoration
of the Magi in the Snow from the Collection Oskar Reinhard 'Am
Römerholz' in Winterthur, The Adoration of the Magi from the
National Gallery in London, the drawings The Beekeepers from
the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and The Painter and the
Connoisseur from the Albertina in Vienna.
Bruegel’s works will be arranged both chronologically and by
theme, allowing visitors to study and appreciate his stylistic
development and the impressive variety of his oeuvre. The
galleries will showcase both his masterpieces and series and
groups reunited for the first time in centuries; in the smaller
adjoining rooms we present the findings of recent comprehensive
technological analyses, offering profound insights into the works’
evolution. We look at both Bruegel’s artistic beginnings as a
draughtsman and graphic artist, and his innovations and vital
contributions to the evolution of landscape painting. One section
of the show will focus on his religious works, bringing together
numerous masterpieces including The Triumph of Death and
Dulle Griet, both especially restored for this exhibition.
For the first time, Christ carrying the Cross, his largest panel and
one that has also retained its original format, will be on show
unframed and displayed so that both its back and front are visible
– as though visitors were looking over the painter’s shoulder,
seeing and appreciating the fragility of the wooden support and
how it was constructed, and the outstanding quality of handling
and paint layer, their perfection being one of the reasons Bruegel’s
paintings have survived four and a half centuries.
A smaller room showcases works featuring a wealth of miniaturelike
details and looks at Bruegel’s training as a miniaturist; its
focal point will be the first-ever confrontation of both depictions
of The Tower of Babel since they were in the collection of
Emperor Rudolf II.
A selection of contemporary artefacts depicted in Battle between
Carnival and Lent invites visitors to appreciate the wealth of
details included in these compositions, to comprehend the
meaning of the individual scenes, and to appreciate Bruegel’s
unrivalled skill in capturing the material quality of depicted
objects. We also question the painting’s traditional moralistic
interpretation and showcase Bruegel’s perceptiveness as a social
critic.
Using Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap and Massacre of the
Innocents as our starting point, we look at Bruegel and his
workshop.
The final gallery presents Bruegel’s late works, offering a nuanced
look at the artist long called 'Peasant Bruegel'. In addition to
Peasant Wedding and Peasant Dance, the show includes his
'legacy-painting' The Magpie on the Gallows. The show’s final
highlight is the first-ever juxtaposition of The Birdnester and the
monumental drawing The Beekeepers.
The Bruegel Research Project
In 2012 and with the support of the Getty Foundation as part of
its Panel Paintings Initiative, the Kunsthistorisches Museum
began a comprehensive technological analysis of its twelve panel
paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Most recent research