Author:
Honig, Elizabeth A. author.
ImprintLondon, UK : Reaktion Books, 2019.
Imprint2019
Description269 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 23 cm.
Note:Humanity and self-knowledge -- Mankind in the cosmos -- Ambition and authority -- Triumph of war: humanity in a world of chaos -- Inside and out: natural languages of human nature -- Laughing man -- Conclusion: speaking truth.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (pages 246-259) and index.
Note:In sixteenth-century Northern Europe, during a time of increasing religious and political conflict, Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel explored how people perceived human nature. Bruegel turned his critical eye and peerless paintbrush to mankind's labors and pleasures, its foibles and rituals of daily life, portraying landscapes, peasant life, and biblical scenes in startling detail. Much like the great humanist scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam, Bruegel questioned how well we really know ourselves and also how we know, or visually read, others. His work often represented mankind's ignorance and insignificance, emphasizing the futility of ambition and the absurdity of pride. This superbly illustrated volume examines how Bruegel's art and ideas enabled people to ponder what it meant to be human. Published to coincide with the four-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of Bruegel's death, it will appeal to all those interested in art and philosophy, the Renaissance, and Flemish painting.
