Discover the complete oeuvre of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the foremost artist of Flemish Renaissance painting. This XL-size monograph brings together his 40 paintings, 65 drawings and 89 engravings, which offer an exceptional vision of religious customs and their close relationship with the popular culture of the time.

The theatre of the world

The complete works of Pieter Bruegel in high resolution

The life and times of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1526/30-1569) were marked by cultural conflict. He witnessed religious wars, the brutal rule of the Duke of Alba as governor of the Netherlands and the palpable effects of the Inquisition. To this day, the Flemish artist remains shrouded in mystery, and it is not known exactly where or when he was born. While early scholars emphasised the vernacular character of both his painting and his graphic work, modern scholarship places more emphasis on the humanist content of his creations.
After starting out as a designer of engravings for the publisher Hieronymus Cock, Bruegel produced numerous series of lithographs that were distributed throughout Europe. In them he illustrated vices and virtues alongside joyful village festivals and magnificent panoramic landscapes. Over time he turned increasingly to painting, producing commissions for the cultural elite of Antwerp and Brussels.
This monograph is a tribute to the artistic development of Bruegel, a creator who bravely confronted the problems of his time while offering innovative proposals and novel solutions. Instead of idealising reality, he illustrated the horror of religious wars and took a critical stance towards the Catholic Church by developing his own pictorial language of dissent, introducing innocuous subliminal ideas into everyday scenes in order to avoid repercussions.
This XL-size collection comprises all of his 40 paintings, 65 drawings and 89 etchings in impeccable reproductions. Each work is a unique testimony to the religious customs and popular culture of its time.

About the authors

Jürgen Mülleres is Professor of Early Modern and Contemporary Art History at the Technical University of Dresden. He studied art history in Bochum, Münster, Pisa, Paris and Amsterdam, and has worked as an art critic and curator at numerous exhibitions. He is the editor of the TASCHEN film series by decades.

Thomas Schauerte is director of the municipal museums of Aschaffenburg. Until 2019, he directed the Albrecht Dürer House Museum, the City Museum and the art collections of the city of Nuremberg. He is an expert in graphic art and his studies focus on Dürer and art during the Middle Ages and the Baroque period.

Publisher: Taschen