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Pieter Brueghel the Elder or Bruegel (c.1525
– September 9, 1569) was a Flemish painter
known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. There
are records that he was born in Broghel near
Breda, but it is unsure whether the
Netherlands|Dutch town of Breda
(Netherlands)|Breda or the Belgium|Belgian town of
Bree, called Breda in Latin, is meant. From 1559
he dropped the 'h' from his name and started
signing his paintings as Bruegel.

He was an apprentice of Pieter van Aelst|Pieter
Coecke van Aelst, whose daughter Mayke he later
married, and was in 1551 accepted as a master in
the painters' guild of Antwerp. He travelled to
Italy soon after, and then returned to Antwerp
before settling in Brussels permanently 10 years
later. He died there on 9 September, 1569.

He was the father of Pieter Brueghel the Younger
and Jan Brueghel the Elder who both became
painters, but as they were still infants when
their father died; neither received any training
from him.

Bruegel specialised in landscapes populated by
peasants, painted in a simpler style than the
Italianate art that prevailed at the time. The
most obvious influence on his art is the older
Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch. He is nicknamed
'Peasant Brueghel' to distinguish him from other
members of the Brueghel|Brueghel dynasty, but is
also the one generally meant when the context does
not make clear which "Brueghel" is being referred
to. 

He is often credited as being the first western
painter to paint landscapes for their own sake,
rather than as a backdrop to a religious allegory.
His winter landscapes of 1565 are corroborative
evidence of the severity of winters during the
Little ice age.

=== Works ===

* Ass at School 1556, Kupferstichkabinett
Staatliche Museen, Berlin
* Landscape with the Fall of Icarus c.1558, Musée
des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
* Netherlandish Proverbs 1559, Staatliche Museen
zu Berlin - Gemaldegalerie, Berlin 

* The Fight Between Carnival and Lent 1559,
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna
* Children's Games 1560, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Wien, Vienna
* Saul (Battle Against The Filistines On The
Gilboa) 1562, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien,
Vienna
* Two Small Monkeys 1562, Staaliche Museen,
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
* The Triumph of Death c. 1562, Museo del Prado,
Madrid 
* Dulle Griet (Mad Meg) c. 1562, Museum Mayer van
den Bergh, Antwerp 
* The Tower of Babel 1563, Kunsthistorisches
Museum Wien, Vienna 
* Flight To Egypt 1563, Courtauld Institute
Galleries, London
* The "Little" Tower of Babel c. 1563, Museum
Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam 

* The Procession to Calvary 1564,
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna 
* The Adoration of the Kings 1564, The National
Gallery, London 
* The Months. A cycle of 6 or 12 paintings of the
months or seasons from the Book of hours of which
five remain:
** The Gloomy Day (Feb.-Ma.) 1565,
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna  
** Hay-Harvest (June-July) 1565, National Museum,
Prague
** The Harvesters (Aug.-Sept.) 1565, Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York
** The Return of the Herd (Oct.-Nov.) 1565,
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna 
* The Calumny of Apelles 1565, British Museum,
London
* The Painter and the Connoisseur c. 1565,
Albertina, Vienna 
* Preaching Of John The Baptist 1566, Beaux Arts
Museum, Budapest
* Census at Bethlehem 1566, Musée des Beaux-Arts,
Brussels
* The Wedding Dance c. 1566, Detroit Institute of
Arts, Detroit
* Conversion Of Paulus 1567, Kunsthistorishes
Museum Wien, Vienna
* The Land of Cockaigne|Cockaigne/Land Of Milk And
Honey 1567, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
* The Blind Leading the Blind 1568, Museo
Nazionale, Napoli
* The Peasant Wedding 1568, Kunsthistorisches
Museum Wien, Vienna
* The Peasant Dance 1568, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Wien, Vienna 
* The Beggars 1568, Louvre, Paris
* The Peasant and the Nest Robber 1568,
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna  
* The Death of the Virgin
* The Fall of the Rebel Angels, Musée des
Beaux-Arts, Brussels

==See Also==
commons|Pieter Brueghel the Elder
*List of Belgian painters
*Early Renaissance painting

==Portrayals in literature==
*Rucker, R. (2002). As above, so below: A novel of
Peter Bruegel. New York: Forge.
*Michael Frayn (2000) Headlong, ISBN 0571201474. A
novel in which a young art historian discovers the
lost painting from The Months cycle.
*Gert Hofmann's novella Der Blindensturz (1985)
depicts the figures in The Blind Leading the Blind
coming to life.

==Other Resources==
*http://www.wga.hu/bio/b/bruegel/pieter_e/biograph
.html Biography at the Web Gallery of Art
*http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bruegel/bruegel.html
Peiter Bruegel the Elder at Olga's Gallery
*http://www.pieter-bruegel.com/ Complete list of
paintings. Includes all of the 100 proverbs from
the painting, with explaination (in French).