Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525-1569) was a Dutch painter and designer for engravings. His works provide a profound and elemental insight into man and his relationship to the world of nature.

Pieter Bruegel lived at a time when northern art was strongly influenced by Italian mannerism, but despite the requisite journey to Italy for purposes of study, he was astonishingly independent of the dominant artistic interests of his day. Instead, he deliberately revived the late Gothic style of Hieronymus Bosch as the point of departure for his own highly complex and original art.

Our major source of information concerning Bruegel is the Dutch biographer Karel van Mander, who wrote in 1604. This near-contemporary of the painter claims that Bruegel was born in a town of the same name near Breda on the modern Dutch-Belgian border. Most recent authorities, however, follow the Italian writer Guicciardini in designating the painter's...