Pieter Bruegel and the Idea of Human Nature (Renaissance Lives)

Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism

Pieter Bruegel and the Idea of Human Nature (Renaissance Lives) Details

Review “In his own time, Pieter Bruegel’s art has been praised as the ultimate achievement in the representation of nature. . . . Honig’s book is the first to make us realize that this appraisal pertains to the representation of human nature of the people surrounding him—workers in the field, citizens of Antwerp and Brussels, noblemen, children, mercenaries, lepers, religious dignitaries, art lovers, humanists, and the like—and of humanity in general, inward and outward woman and man included. Bruegel’s own personality and convictions, she writes, largely remain opaque, but it is thanks to Honig’s marvelous descriptions of some of Bruegel’s most renowned pictures that our eyes are opened to both the ‘idea of nature’ as people conceived of it in his time, but also to Bruegel’s personal, deeply perceptive ideas about human nature.” (Reindert Falkenburg, NYU Abu Dhabi)“Eloquently and effectively, Honig fulfills the promise of her title with a fresh, close look at Bruegel, among contemporaries, within his tumultuous era. She clearly articulates how the artist examined themes concerning basic human nature across his career. But in the process, she reminds us that while this thoughtful, engaged man laughed at the vices and follies of all humankind, like Democritus, he also, self-consciously, ultimately left us mute images to interpret alone.” (Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania, author of "Rembrandt’s Holland") Read more About the Author Elizabeth Honig is professor of European art history at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Jan Brueghel and the Senses of Scale and Painting and the Market in Early Modern Antwerp. Read more

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