Press release
4 December 2014
Bruegel: new insights on a Masterpiece
On Friday December 12, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium will
present the results of several years of research on the works of Pieter
Bruegel the Elder.
The Museums own the second largest Bruegel collection in the world,
including the Fall of the Rebel Angels. It is thus fitting to launch a new
book about this masterpiece on these premises. This book reveals
some long kept secrets about the painting, in particular its rendering of
fantastic creatures and enigmatic objects and traces unexpected links
between art, knowledge and politics in Bruegel’s time. The book will
be released on December 5 2014.
Pieter I Bruegel, The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1562, oak (detail) © RMFAB, photo : Grafisch Buro Lefevre,
Heule
The Fall of the Rebel Angels
The Fall of the Rebel Angels (1562), an absolute masterpiece of Bruegel, illustrates the
scenes of the Fall of the Angels and the Apocalypse. At the centre, Saint Michael, in
golden armour with a blue-turquoise cape, fights a seven-headed dragon.
This monster is partially hidden by an endless maelstrom of frightening
hybrids. Remarkably, this fascinating painting has never been thoroughly studied.
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Publication
Tine Meganck argues that Bruegel, in a most ingenious attempt to surpass
Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516), transforms the traditional moralizing story about the sin
of pride into an innovative commentary on his own time.
The Fall of the Rebel Angels becomes a reflection on the potential danger of men in
their quest for art, knowledge and politics, a universal theme that is still very poignant
to this day.
This beautifully illustrated publication is based on an exhaustive research financed by
a project of the Interuniversity Attraction Pole programme (IAP) P7/26 “City and
Society in the Low Countries (ca. 1200-ca. 1850)” (Belspo).
Art, Knowledge and Politics
Many of the falling angels are hybrids, carefully composed of closely observed
naturalia (things made by nature) and artificialia (things made by man), as they were
then collected in art and curiosity cabinets. Among the swarming falling angels we
discover rare and exotic animals such as the armadillo and the blowfish, a Native
American attired with colourful feathers, an Ottoman helmet, as well as references to
sought-after artworks by other old masters, such as Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer.
By zooming in on the creation year 1562, the author offers fascinating insights on the
emerging global knowledge society, and the role of art in local politics on the eve of
the Dutch Revolt. Among others she suggests, through multiple evidences and
analyses, new connections between Bruegel and Brussels, the city, the court, the
chambers of rhetoric and the Brussels tapestry industry.
The valuable collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is one of the most famous Renaissance painters. Only about
forty of his paintings from his short career (he died in 1569, around the age of 40) have
been preserved, making them rare and extremely valuable. It is perhaps little known
that the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium house the second largest ensemble of
Bruegel the Elder paintings, after the exceptional collection of the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna. The RMFAB own several of his paintings: the Fall of the Rebel
Angels (1562), the Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap (1565), and the Census at
Bethlehem (1566), as well as one preparatory drawing for Prudence (1558). The three
paintings are visible for the public, at the Musée OldMasters Museum.
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On the author
Tine Meganck is a researcher at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels,
funded by the Interuniversity Attraction Pole (IAP), a research programme of the
Belgian Science Policy (Belspo). She obtained her PhD in Art History at Princeton
University.
Practical information
Presentation of the publication
Friday December 12, 2014
Programme:
10:15-10:30
10:30-10:40
10:40-11:30
11:30
Welcoming of the participants / Coffee break
Introduction by Dr. Sabine van Sprang
Presentation of the publication by Dr. Tine Meganck
Visit to the Bruegel room, Musée Old Masters Museum
Address:
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Rue de la Régence 3 | 1000 Brussels
Confirmation:
[email protected] | M + 32 472 50 00 14
Publication
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Fall of the Rebel Angels
Art, Knowledge and Politics on the Eve of the Dutch Revolt
Author: Tine L. Meganck
Cahier n° 16 of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Publisher : Silvana Editoriale, 2014
Release date : 05.12.2014
17 × 24 cm
208 pages
100 illustrations
Soft cover
English
EAN 978883662920-6
€ 28,00
(available at the Museum Shop and large book stores
from 05.12.14)
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Contact
Samir Al-Haddad
Press Officer
T + 32 2 508 34 08 M + 32 472 50 00 14
Rue du Musée 9 | 1000 Brussels
[email protected]
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