I really enjoyed studying Peter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch’s art. I like the visual detail both artists provided, but I really enjoyed studying these artists because of their historical context. I was fascinated by the change in artistic context that was changing at the time. They both had their own individual unique focuses in much of their art.
Bosch’s pieces are very interesting, particularly his painting Garden of Earthly Delights. I found his medieval approach interesting, along with the imaginative creatures he displays. All through the painting you can see houses, or castles that look like they just came out of a Dr. Suess book or movie. You can see ducks and birds larger than humans. The people in the painting are all naked, and partaking in crazy activities such as riding animals that are typically smaller than a human, have body parts that are not all human, and delighting themselves to whatever they please. This painting is filled with a ton of metaphors for sin. I think it is really important that daily human desires and sin were really put into paintings, and artwork because that’s what life really is. I think he was very down to earth with the idea of painting a sinful picture of human life… although his painting is a bit more imaginative than realistic and down to earth.
I also enjoyed studying Peter Bruegel. I really liked visually how his paintings came out. And I also love the fact that he was one of the founding people for inserting, or having landscapes as a main focus of a painting. His painting Return of the Hunters is absolutely beautiful. And although the title is named after the hunters in the picture, your eye immediately looks at the landscape. For me, I hardly even look at the hunters. I am so focused on the amount of detail and exactness that is in the landscape, the houses, mountains tree, small bridges fields and lakes. There is so much detail, I feel like I am almost dragging my eyes away from the landscape to look at the hunters and the houses in the foreground. His painting The Harvesters has a similar affect. The landscape is the main thing that my eyes see. But I also noticed the extreme detain Bruegel put into this painting. They hay has so many individual lines for the grass, and his trees looks so realistic. His eye for detail was what really made him such a great painter.
Overall, Peter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch are my favorite artists from this quarter. I could look at their work all day studying the amount of details the both put into their paintings. And the subject matter in Bosch is fascinating as interesting, something I would love to study more. But I am excited to see what we study next quarter!
