Adoration of the Kings (Bruegel)

The Adoration of the Kings
The Adoration of the Kings
Artist	Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Year	1564, signed and dated at bottom right "BRVEGEL M.D.LXIIII"
Type	Oil on panel
Dimensions	111 cm × 83.5 cm (44 in × 32.9 in)
Location	National Gallery, London

The Adoration of the Kings is an oil-on-panel painting of the Adoration of the Magi by the Netherlandish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in 1564, and now in the National Gallery, London.

Description

In the chronological sequence of Bruegel's work, this painting of 1564 marks an important departure as the first to be composed almost exclusively of large figures. The group of people, taken from Italian mannerist painters like Parmigianino, permits Bruegel to concentrate on individual faces, giving each a quite distinct, and sometimes grotesque, expression.^[1]

This emphasis on the uniqueness of each figure, and Bruegel's lack of interest in depicting ideal beauty in the Italian manner, makes it clear that although borrowing an Italian compositional scheme, Bruegel is putting it to quite a different use. In this treatment, the painter's first purpose is to record the range and intensity of individual reactions to the sacred event.^[2]

References

^ * Jean Gossart, The Adoration of the Kings, Lorne Campbell, from 'The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings with French Paintings before 1600', London 2011; published online 2011
^ Cf. Pietro Allegretti, Brueghel, Skira, Milano 2003. ISBN 0-00-001088-X (in Italian)

External links

Detail gallery

Below a series of images detailing Bruegel's painting:

Mary and Baby Jesus
Joseph and a figure whispering
One of the Kings
Group of figures

[1] * Jean Gossart, The Adoration of the Kings, Lorne Campbell, from 'The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings with French Paintings before 1600', London 2011; published online 2011

[2] Cf. Pietro Allegretti, Brueghel, Skira, Milano 2003. ISBN 0-00-001088-X (in Italian)

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v t e Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Paintings	List of paintings Parable of the Sower (1557) Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples (1558–1562) The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (1559) Netherlandish Proverbs (1559) Children's Games (1560) Landscape with the Fall of Icarus The Triumph of Death (c. 1562) The Fall of the Rebel Angels (1562) The Suicide of Saul (1562) Two Monkeys (1562) Dull Gret (1563) Adoration of the Magi in a Winter Landscape (1563) The Tower of Babel (1563) Landscape with the Flight into Egypt (1563) Adoration of the Magi in a Winter Landscape (1563 or 1567) Adoration of the Kings (1564) The Procession to Calvary (1564) Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (1565) The Gloomy Day (1565) The Harvesters (1565) The Hay Harvest (1565) The Return of the Herd (1565) The Wine of Saint Martin's Day (c. 1565–1568) The Hunters in the Snow (1565) The Bird Trap (1565) Winter Landscape with Ice skaters and Bird trap (1565) Massacre of the Innocents (c. 1565–1567) The Census at Bethlehem (1566) The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist (1566) The Wedding Dance (1566) Conversion of Paul (1567) The Land of Cockaigne (1567) The Peasant Wedding (1567) The Peasant Dance (c. 1567) The Beggars (1568) The Peasant and the Nest Robber (1568) The Blind Leading the Blind (1568) The Magpie on the Gallows (1568) The Misanthrope (1568) The Storm at Sea (c. 1569)
Drawings	The Painter and The Buyer (1565)
Related	Pieter Brueghel the Younger (son) Jan Brueghel the Elder (son) Jan Brueghel the Younger (grandson) Breugel, Netherlands Son en Breugel The Mill and the Cross (2011 film) Bruegel (crater) 9664 Brueghel Bruegel (institution)