The Peasant and the Nest Robber
The Peasant and the Nest Robber | |
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Artist | Pieter Bruegel the Elder |
Year | 1568[1] |
Type | Oil on panel |
Dimensions | 59.3 cm × 68.3 cm (23.3 in × 26.9 in) |
Location | Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
The Peasant and the Nest Robber (also The Peasant and the Birdnester) is an oil-on-panel painting by the Netherlandish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in 1568. It is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Description
This painting was in the collections of since 1569; passed on to the imperial collection, it became part of those of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at its inauguration.[2] Painted the year before the artist's death, this painting, like other late works such as The Land of Cockaigne, The Peasant Dance, and The Peasant Wedding, is dominated by monumental figures. Immediately after his return from Italy, Bruegel showed no apparent interest in Italian figure types and compositions, reverting to the Antwerp tradition in which he had been trained.[3] However, in these late works he shows that his study of Italian painting had taken root: these figures demonstrate his knowledge of Italian art and in particular the art of Michelangelo.[4]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_St_John_the_Baptist_-_WGA12723.jpg/100px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_St_John_the_Baptist_-_WGA12723.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Peasant_and_the_Birdnester_-_WGA3520.jpg/200px-Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Peasant_and_the_Birdnester_-_WGA3520.jpg)
This unusual subject apparently illustrates a Netherlandish proverb:
Dije den nest Weet dijen weeten, dijen Roft dij heeten
He who knows where the nest is, has the knowledge, he who robs, has the nest.[5]
The painting presents a moralising contrast between the active, wicked individual and the passive man who is virtuous in spite of adversity[6] (a similar theme appears in his drawing The Beekeepers)[7] And lastly it could be suggested that the pointing man is making judgement on the robber whilst not aware that he is nearly stepping into the water in front of him.
It has been suggested that, with his knowledge of Italian art, Bruegel intended the peasant's gesture as a profane parody of the gesture of Leonardo's St John see image at left.[8]
See also
Notes and references
- ^ dated and signed "BRVEGEL M.D.LXVIII"
- ^ For a short time it also became part of Napoleon's war booty.
- ^ Cf. Pietro Allegretti, Brueghel, Skira, Milano 2003. ISBN 0-00-001088-X (in Italian)
- ^ Cf. Pietro Allegretti, Brueghel, ibid. (in Italian)
- ^ Cf. R. Rucker, "Notes for Ortelius and Bruegel" (2011), p.55
- ^ Another interpretation could be that "the pushy guy gets the girl", as according to some "nest" in Flemish may mean "pussy". Cf. R. Rucker, "Notes for Ortelius and Bruegel", ibid. [1]
- ^ Currently at the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin.
- ^ F. Grossmann, Pieter Bruegel: Complete Edition of the Paintings (3rd ed.), London:Phaidon (1973), s.v.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- The Peasant and the Nest Robber at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (German)
- Notes on the painting, on Frammenti d'Arte Accessed 4 February 2012 (in Italian)
- Bosch Bruegel Society
- 99 works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
- Creative Bruegel laid the foundation of the Netherlands School (Russian)
- "Bruegel" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
- v
- t
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- 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)
- 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)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Wierix%2C_Johannes_%28attributed_to%29_-_Portrait_of_Pieter_Brueghel_%28I%29_-_1572_-_RP-P-1907-593_cropped.jpg/75px-Wierix%2C_Johannes_%28attributed_to%29_-_Portrait_of_Pieter_Brueghel_%28I%29_-_1572_-_RP-P-1907-593_cropped.jpg)
- The Painter and The Buyer (1565)
- 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)