/faq/"*FAQ*/a**/td**/tr**tr**td**FONT SIZE="2" FACE="Arial, Helvetica"**PRE*Past and Present Meanings How could the painter Pieter Bruegel and writer Wislawa Szymborska have anything remotely in common, when the fact is that four hundred years separate their works? A painting by Pieter Bruegel connects these two artists over four hundred years of time. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was born sometime between 1525 and 1530. Originally a student of Pieter Coecke van Alost, he was later accepted into the Antwerp painters' guild in 1551. In 1563 he married Coecke's daughter, and they later had two children. Both children would prove to have their own artistic abilities and would carry on the painting tradition. Only six years after his marriage, he would be buried at the same church in which he had been wed. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was considered, "the most perfect painter of his century"(198) by Walter S. Gibson, an author of a book on Bruegel. He chose not to follow the same Flemish style that was popular amongst many fellow artists. This made him an individualist. Surprisingly, his works grew popular nonetheless. Bruegel often painted scenes of vast landscapes, but was more known for his paintings of peasant life. Because he spent much of his time working on peasant scenes, many think of him as one of the Flemish peasants. In reality, he was the same as any townsman and actually regarded peasants as a form of low life and a social class to mock. This mockery is evident in his painting Peasant Wedding and Feast. The wedding takes place in a barn, people are shoveling food into their mouths, and as E.H. Gombrich puts it, the bride "sits quietly, with folded hands and a grin of utter contentment on her stupid face"(380). This seems to be one of Bruegel's happier paintin! gs of peasants, and their activities. Due to the detailed nature of his paintings, Bruegel's works have often aided in deciphering events of the past. For example, the Labours o...
