Page 109 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Belgium & Luxembourg

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Pieter Brueghel the Elder
(c.1525–69) was the great est
of a family of talented artists.
He showed an earthy delight in
Flemish rural life and used it as
the context for scenes from the
Bible or Greek mythology. In his
Fall of Icarus (c.1558), the unfor tu­
nate pioneer aviator crashes into
the sea beside a ship, unnoticed
by the nearby plough man who
is concentrating on his work.

Pieter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was known as
a master of composition. His Adoration of the Magi
(1624) brings extraordinary energy to this well
worn theme, making the viewer’s eye dance
around from face to face, although the prime
focus always remains the baby Jesus.
Jan van Eyck demonstrates his exceptional
eye for detail, through contem porary touches
such as the canon’s spectacles, in Madonna
with Canon van der Paele (1436).

Anthony van Dyck
(1599–1641) worked
as Rubens’s chief
assistant in Antwerp.
His gift for portraiture,
seen in his self­portrait Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678) worked with Rubens
at the age of 30, later in Antwerp. He is famous for lively paintings such
brought him great as The Family Concert (1638). The matronly central
success at the court figure watches the others make raucous music,
of Charles I in England. while, unobserved, the dog sniffs the food.

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