Bruegel: The Hand of the Master

Bruegel: The Hand of the Master

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s unique and innovative use of his materials is an essential focus of Bruegel: The Hand of the Master, the first-ever major exhibition dedicated to the greatest Netherlandish painter of the Sixteenth Century.

On view at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Austria, from October 2, 2018 until January 13, 2019, Bruegel: The Hand of the Master includes some 40 paintings, 60 drawings and 80 prints, uniting Bruegel’s works across all media in a single exhibition for the first time.

Peasant Dance, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c.1568, oil on oak panel, 44⅞ x 64⅗ inches, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery.

The Bruegel Research Project

The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna carefully analyzed the 12 panel paintings in its collection, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, in a long-running research project. For the first time, the museum has looked at Bruegel’s materials and his creative process, including how his panels were constructed, his brushwork and techniques, and at the history of materials.

Even after the exhibition ends, a free website www.insidebruegel.net will for the first time offer profound insights into the paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder based on the most recent technological analyses of his works.

Bruegel’s Supports

Oak panels were pieced together from planks, expertly cut from high quality imported Baltic wood and joined horizontally by dowels (pegs), as in the image below.  Oak trees from this region, now parts of Poland and Russia, provided particularly stable and long planks.

A pale ground of chalk and hide glue was applied to the panels which were sanded smooth to accommodate underdrawings. Research shows that the underdrawings were highly detailed and closely followed in subsequent paint layers in earlier works.

In later works, after 1563, Bruegel relied less upon a fully prepared underdrawing to instead compose and make changes while working on the painting, with various methods of applying and manipulating the paint.

Hunters in the Snow, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565, oil on oak panel, 46 x 63⅘ inches, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery, depicts “Winter” in Bruegel’s Seasons series. This was a six-part series of the changing seasons originally comprised of 6 large scale paintings produced for a collector’s dining room, only 5 of these masterpieces still exist.

A Sampling of Bruegel’s Techniques

The technique of blotting still wet paint with cut sections of natural sponge on transparent or opaque color, as displayed in the exhibition along with details from the painting The Return of the Herd, is imaged below.

The Return of the Herd, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565, oil on oak panel, 46 x 62⅗ inches, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery, depicts “Autumn” in Bruegel’s Seasons series.

Extremely fine lines were achieved by lightly scratching into wet paint in the technique (sgraffito) as displayed in the exhibition with a pointed end of the brush handle.

The Gloomy Day, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565, oil on oak panel, 46½ x 64⅕ inches, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery, depicts “Early Spring” in Bruegel’s Seasons series.

By holding worn out “stubby”brushes in a tapping vertical position, glazed surfaces could be textured more efficiently, as displayed in the exhibition along with the detail from the painting Peasant Wedding, shown below.

Notice how this texture, created by the worn bristles of Bruegel’s brush, also brought more light into the passage because it created tiny points of greater transparency and reflection. This detail is found in the lower right corner of the full size work below.

Peasant Wedding, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c.1567, oil on oak panel, 44⅞ x 64⅗ inches, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Picture Gallery.

Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna – To learn more about this “once in a lifetime” encounter with so many of Bruegel’s masterpieces, many on exhibit for the first time, visit the website for Bruegel: The Hand of the Master here.