Renaissance Painter

Hello, my name is Peter Bruegel and I was born in the city of Brueghel in the Netherlands. My father was a poor peasant. I became an apprentice Peter Coecke van Aist and later married his daughter. When I was in Belgium, I was accepted as a master in the painter’s guild.

I was a very different Renaissance painter in comparison to someone like the Italian, Leonardo Da Vinci. I wasn’t known for drawing portraits of rich people. I preferred painting scenery and nature. Because of this, I became the first European painter to paint landscapes for their own sake rather than as a background.

Most of my paintings of the countryside tell a story or even a moral message. My paintings tell about how life was like especially for the ordinary poor people of my time. Historians will be able to use these paintings to understand life during my time. My painting Children’s Games shows the different games that children played in the 16th century. The children range in age from toddlers to adolescents. Some of the 80 games depicted in the painting include rolling hoops, walking on stilts, riding bobby horses, leap-frog, blind- man’s buff, performing handstands and playing with dolls and other toys. The main scene is very crowded but there is also a scenery of a river in the top left of the building. This painting can now be found in the Museum of Art History in Vienna.

The Gloomy Day is one of a series of 6 paintings depicting different times of the year. This is set at the start of the year, possibly in January, as can be seen by the bleak atmosphere and the leafless trees. Perhaps there is a harsh storm coming because of (a) the bleak sky, (b) the boat’s crashing into the shoreline and (c) the children in the foreground appear busy preparing for this harsh weather. I used perspective here with the coastline, mountains and bleak sky in the background. Perspective is adding depth to a painting. I have also used sfumato as can be seen from the shadows of the children and the trees. This painting is also stored in the Museum of Art History in Vienna.