Masters of Art: Bruegel [Hardcover]

Wolfgang Stechow (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0810931036 | ISBN-13: 978-0810931039 | Publication Date: March 1, 1990

At a time when artists were still primarily occupied with religious or mythological subject matter, the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel turned his shrewd eye on everyday ways. This book outlines the artist's account of his society and times, and the relevance that account has for us today.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Edited by Wilfried Seipel, Director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and renowned art historian and critic. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (March 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810931036
• ISBN-13: 978-0810931039
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God is in the Details, September 25, 2000

By 

Eric Pyle (Higashi Ku, Hiroshima Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pieter Bruegel The Elder (Hardcover)

I got this book two or three years ago in an Italian-language edition. I can't read Italian, so I can't comment on the quality of the text, but I can say that any Bruegel fan will be very happy to have this book, with or without readable words.

The trouble with most Bruegel books is that they show tiny reproductions of the paintings, necessarily much reduced in size, and, if you're lucky, show a detail or two of each picture. Yet more than any other painter I know of, the pleasure of Bruegel is in the mass of figures. There is no point at all in looking at a painting like the "Children's Games" if you can't spend a good long time looking at all the different figures, enjoying their games and funny poses, and marvelling that the artist could paint them all with such confidence, in translucent paint and with such a sure touch that it looks as if he never rubbed anything out in his whole career.

That's why this book is such a joy: there are ten full-page details of the "Children's Games", on good big pages and in very accurate color. There are ten full-page details of the "Carnival and Lent" picture, and six of the "Suicide of Saul", which is such a small picture to begin with that the details in this book are mostly larger than actual size.

The selections in this book, as the title says, are limited to the pictures in the Vienna museum. This is not as bad a limitation as it might sound, since the majority of Bruegels in the world are probably in this museum. The larger of the two Tower of Babel paintings is here (the one with Nimrod in the foreground), and so are the "Conversion of St. Paul", some of the most famous landscapes, and the splendid "Road to Calvary", with the wonderful classical Mary surrounded by horrible fairground types. All of the pictures are shown with no fewer than four detail pages.

Limiting the book to the Vienna museum does mean that some favorites are left out, though. The Fall of the Rebel Angels, The Triumph of Death, and the smaller, redder Tower of Babel are not in this book. It's still a wonderful volume.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The World On Wood, April 28, 2000

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bruegel: The Complete Paintings (Basic Art) (Paperback)

Pieter Bruegel The Elder must have been a very interesting fellow. I would have liked to have known him. This lovely book lets you enter the strange world of Bruegel, overflowing with the reality of the 16th century Netherlands mixed (in the same painting) with biblical and classical scenes! To the modern eye and mind these are very disconcerting combinations! You have the Tower Of Babel being constructed next to a waterway which contains European sailing ships, while off in the distance you can see the houses of Antwerp. You have Icarus falling into the sea while a 16th century farmer walks by with his ox and while another man fishes nearby, both seemingly oblivious to the fate of the poor man. Bruegel's paintings, most of which were done on wood panel, are full of many different people doing many different things. You get a sense of hustle and bustle and life. Oftimes the people are odd-looking and have strange physiques. Children are indistinguishable from adults. Visual puns abound. Men at a wedding dance have outrageously bulging codpieces; bare buttocks are sometimes visible through windows. Other paintings contain moral lessons and are full of horrible demons or skeletons rampaging through the countryside like some awful supernatural army, raping and murdering. Still other paintings are of idyllic scenes, such as maidens walking through the countryside at harvest time or children playing games on the ice during winter. Bruegel was a master of color and the harvest scenes glow with golden yellow and the winter scenes chill you with whites and subtle greys and leaden skies. Taschen has done it again with another fine book with excellent commentary and high quality reproductions. The paintings of Bruegel are full of humor and horror and beauty and ugliness and sometimes so much is going on you can't digest it all at one time. The paintings of Bruegel are full of life.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too few details, often poor reproductions, October 31, 2006

By 

anon. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Masters of Art: Bruegel (Hardcover)

I bought this on the basis of a review that praised it for its excellent array of details, but that reviewer was clearly not looking at the same book: the volume sold on this page contains no details of "Children's Games" and very few details of other paintings; the quality of the color plates is generally quite poor. I wish I could find the book that person reviewed; I'll be returning this one!