The Dissemination of Bruegel
Imagery in the Southern Netherlands during the Seventeenth
Century
Karolien De Clippel
(KU Leuven) and Filip Vermeylen (University of Antwerp)
During the sixteenth
century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder had been the architect
of a number of pictorial themes which enjoyed immediate
and enduring popularity. These compositions included
peasant scenes, depictions of the seasons, proverbs
and visions of heaven and hell. During the seventeenth
century, many of these types continued to be produced
and disseminated A? not in the least by various members
of the Bruegel dynasty A? and found their way to local
collections or to the international art market.
This paper examines
the consumption of Bruegel imagery during the seventeenth
century in the Southern Netherlands. In a first quantitative
part, we will screen probate inventories, visual sources
and other contemporary evidence for the presence of
these particular types of genre iconography in the
Flemish home. In this respect, we will emphasize that
Bruegel images were not only produced in the form
of paintings, but also through other media such as
prints and drawings, painted household objects (e.g.
plates, mugs, etc.) and sculpture.
Subsequently, we will
pursue a more qualitative approach in investigating
the way in which these images were reproduced. Were
Bruegel compositions and/or motifs simply and literally
copied or were they subject to modifications and alterations
in response to the changing taste of seventeenth-century
society? In other words, to what extent did new categories
of images emerge from these copying and emulation
practices? In addition, we will address issues of
agency and audience A? who produced Bruegel derivatives
and who bought them?
In short, this paper
seeks to gauge the presence of a specific kind of
genre iconography in seventeenth-century private ownership,
and survey the different media through which these
were reproduced and collected. What was the power
of these highly recognizable types/images insofar
as they continued to form part of the visual vocabulary
of the Southern Netherlandish artistic production?
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