Pieter Bruegel Triumph Of Death Analysis

Bruegel and Warhol:
Paving the Way to Morality in their Respective Times

Artists, Pieter Bruegel and Andy Warhol are geniuses in their own rite. Bruegel lived in an era, where religion, warring, and class were in constant tension. His paintings depict the societal ills of his time, masked in mythology, and religious themes. I imagine he utilized this method so that he would not be sought out as an open critic—risking his life. Warhol, on the other hand, grew up in the United States, during an era where the US experienced the Great Depression, anti-Semitic sentiment, and civil rights issues. One could only imagine that basic staples of life—everyday objects were relevant to this artist, since he personally experienced the nation’s unemployment …show more content…
In Triumph of Death, Bruegel assimilates the Christian and the classical in a deeply innovative work of art. Furthermore, Triumph of Death, represents one of the most popular humorous themes in humanist thinking—death as an outlook on life. Moreover, Triumph of Death mocked both, the actions of the Reformist Movement and that of the Church, presenting a humanist critique of both ideologies through a stoic view of the madness and folly of Bruegel’s time. Because of his humanist connections and use of classical and Christian motifs, Bruegel’s art responds to the literary traditions of Northern Renaissance humanism, which invigorated the classical tradition of satire and folly of man. His works are a social and political satire on his homeland, since it personifies the pandemonium and insanity Bruegel witnessed. Like other artists of the North, Bruegel was known for the peasant scenes and landscapes he painted throughout his career. However, Bruegel also integrated elements of classical ideas from vernacular traditions, in which he was able to depict similar metaphors as other artists of his time. Yet through his revisions, he conveyed immensely dissimilar impressions. Scholars agreed that Bruegel’s method involved the implementation of Italianate and conventional style, form, and iconographies into the Netherlandish pictorial masterpieces. Bruegel’s humorous, yet coarse implementation of widely familiar images makes irony a central theme in his compositions. Bruegel could be a “neutral” observer and a social commentator, in which Death, sarcasm’s ultimate nemesis debilitates mankind. Humanists looked to the knowledge left by antiquity to comprehend and explain contemporary issues. Simultaneously, the growing printing markets in the Netherlands, provided Northern humanists concrete foundations of these conventional texts and