Type Oil on panel Created 1564 | Period Northern Renaissance Genre Christian art | |
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Year 1564, signed and dated at bottom right "BRVEGEL M.D.LXIIII" Dimensions 111 cm × 83.5 cm (44 in × 32.9 in) Artists Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan Brueghel the Elder Location National Portrait Gallery, London Similar Pieter Bruegel the Elder artwork, Northern Renaissance artwork, Christian art | ||
Bruegel s the adoration of the kings
The Adoration of the Kings is an oil-on-panel painting of the Adoration of the Magi by the Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in 1564, and now in the National Gallery, London.
Contents
Reflections on medieval renaissance objects the adoration of the kings
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.
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.
Detail gallery
Below a series of images detailing Bruegel's painting: