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| Artist: | Brueghel the Elder, Pieter (1525 - 1569) |
|---|---|
| Title: | Desidia (Sloth), 1558 |
| Medium: | Original Engraving |
| Image Size: | 11 3/8 in x 8 3/4 in (28.9 cm x 22.23 cm) |
| Sheet Size: | 11 3/8 in x 8 3/4 in (28.9 cm x 22.23 cm) |
| Framed Size: | 20 5/8 in x 18 1/4 in (52.4 cm x 46.36 cm) |
| Signed: | The signature of Bruegel is inscribed in cartouche in the lower left: ‘brueghel · Inuentor ·’ |
| Edition: | From 1st state by Pieter van der Heyden after an original ink on paper of the same title by Pieter Bruegel. One of a series titled The Vices (or, The Seven Deadly Sins) |
| Condition: | This work is in good condition - fine, dark impression |
| Gallery Price: Item# 2078 | Sorry, this item is sold. Please visit the rest of our Brueghel the Elder fine art collection |
| Historical Description: | |
|---|---|
Taken from Bruegel’s famous series of The Vices, this work personifies the world of Sloth. The environment is complete with vignettes of ghoulish creatures and demon-like characters who serve to exemplify the meaning of sheer idleness, laziness, and stagnation. It is a beautifully engraved piece - the amount of detail seen here is a testament to Bruegel’s mastery in the etched medium. According to H. Arthur Klein (1963) , “Here, Sloth herself, older and uglier than the other allegories, sleeps open-mouthed in a landscape of delay, decay, and ultimate impotence. She reposes on her beastly counterpart, a sleeping ass. A monster behind her adjusts her pillow. Around her crawl huge snails. Even the hill of Sloth is soft as shown by a winged demon sawing into it at left. One art historian sees the saw as a suggestion of Dame Sloth’s snoring as she sleeps. Another regards the sawman as a symbol for malicious gossip, his mouth ever open as he cuts away the ground from under others” (p. 114) . Created in 1558, Sloth was engraved by Pieter van der Heyden after an original drawing by Bruegel, featuring an inscription along the lower margin: “SEGNITIES ROBVR FRANGIT, LONGA AOCIA NERVOS (Sluggishness breaks strength, long idleness [breaks] the nerves) | Traechheyt maeckt machteloos, en verdroocht / Die senuwen dat de mensch niewers toe en doocht (Sloth makes [man] powerless and dries out the nerves until man is good for nothing) .” The signature of Bruegel is inscribed in cartouche in the lower left: ‘brueghel · Inuentor ·’ with the monogram ‘PAME’ in the lower center. The title, ‘DESIDIA’ is found in the lower left-center and at the lower right, ‘·H· Cock · excud· cum · Privileg · 1558·” Catalogue Raisonné & COA: 1. Bastelaer, René van. The Prints of Peter Bruegel the Elder, Catalogue Raisonné New Edition, Alan Wofsy Fine Arts: San Francisco, 1992. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 126 on pgs. 162-3. 2. Klein, H. Arthur. Graphic Worlds of Peter Bruegel the Elder, Dover Publications: New York, 1963. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 46 on pgs. 114-5. 3. Orenstein, Nadine M., ed. for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints, Yale University Press: New Haven, 2001. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné no. 52-3 on pgs. 156-7. 4. Sellink, Manfred. Bruegel: The Complete Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Ludion: New York, 2007. Listed and illustrated as catalogue raisonné nos. 54-5 on pgs. 104-5. About the Framing: | |
| Style: | Old master |
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Biography of Pieter Brueghel the Elder
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525 - 1569)
Pieter Brueghel (1525-69), usually known as Pieter Brueghel the Elder to distinguish him from his elder son, was the first in a family of Flemish painters. You'll often find his name spelled as Bruegel (Pieter spelled it like that from 1559 onwards) or Breugel or Breughel.
He was born in Breda in the Duchy of Brabant, which is now part of The Netherlands but back then part of the Flanders.
Note: Flanders or Vlaanderen and the Netherlands (aka known as Holland) or Nederland share the same language. It's called Flemish, or "Vlaams" in Belgium and Dutch, or "Nederlands" in The Netherlands. And the name Holland, although it's often taken to mean the whole of the Netherlands, is really part of that country only, the area of the provinces called Zuid Holland and Noord Holland (South and North Holland).
Brueghel was accepted as a master in the Antwerp painters' guild in 1551, after being an apprentice of Coecke van Aelst, a leading Antwerp artist, sculptor, architect, and designer of tapestry and stained glass. Brueghel traveled to Italy in 1551 or 1552, completing a number of paintings, mostly landscapes, there. Returning home in 1553, he settled in Antwerp but ten years later moved permanently to Brussels. He married van Aelst's daughter, Mayken, in 1563. His paintings, including his landscapes and scenes of peasant life, stress the absurd and vulgar, yet are full of zest and fine detail. They also expose human weaknesses and follies. He was sometimes called the Peasant Brueghel. But it was in nature that he found his greatest inspiration. His mountain landscapes have few parallels in European art. Popular in his own day, Bruegel prints have remained consistently popular. Pieter Brueghel the Elder died in Brussels on Sept. 9, 1569.
