There is nothing that fascinates me more than a painting. The capability of reproducing an image on a canvas can be a matter of technique, but some paintings, transcending the mere subject of the picture, communicate an atmosphere or a feeling, or capture a special moment. These last testimony that the artist's mastery of the brush is so thorough as to dominate it, subjecting it to the service of his own inspiration.
The Brueghel family was indeed a dynasty of talented artists, active between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
| Pieter Bruegel the Elder | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pieter Brueghel the Younger | Jan Brueghel the Elder | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ambrosius Brueghel | Jan Brueghel the Younger | Anna Brueghel | David Teniers the Younger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jan Pieter Brueghel | Abraham Brueghel | Jan Baptist Brueghel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The exhibition offers important works of art from major national and international museums, presented in an organic progression that reveals their full history.
The show also boasts works (some of them never exhibited before in Italy!) from prestigious private collections located around the world.
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| The Conjurer - School of Bosch |
The relation between Bosch and the Brueghel dynasty marks the start of this story. Pieter Brueghel the Elder drew inspiration from the dreamlike visions of his "spiritual teacher", reworking them in a more down-to-earth key. He paid close attention to the landscape and the relationship between man and nature, and his depictions of peasant dances and illustrated proverbs were to have a lasting influence on Flemish painting.
His rendering of the rural world was adopted as a model especially by his son, Pieter the Younger, whose "The Bird Trap" is one of my favorite (the trap is the unstable door on the right of the painting).
But I also loved "The seven works of mercy" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger,
and "The temptation of Saint Anton" by Jan the Elder, his brother, nicknamed "Velvet",
while I found less impressive the allegorical paintings and the floral ones, like this titled "Floral and Carnation" by Ambrosius Brueghel.
But -and don't blame me please- I definitely did not appreciate the "insects collection" by Jan van Kessel, grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder...maybe because I don't like insects at all???
Not to forget: I must apologize for having taken the pics from the internet, but, besides the fact that it was forbidden, mine looked really awful! The one above is my best shoot. :(
Not only the exhibition is fascinating, but also the building that hosts it. Chiostro del Bramante is a cloister, dating back to the XVI century, and it was part of a monastery complex that included also the adjacent Church of Santa Maria della Pace, home of Raphael famous Sybil's fresco.
And if you're looking for a quiet place to sip a wonderful cappuccino before continuing your walk to the nearby Piazza Navona, stop, as I did, at Caffé della Pace. It is one of the best roman address!
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