Jan Brueghel the Elder's The Garden of Eden With the Fall of Man (1613) was blocked from being transported to a foreign buyer after Sotheby's sale. Experts deemed the work as too culturally and artistically significant to leave the UK, and has demanded that Sotheby's sell to a domestic buyer. Other artworks such as van Dyck's 1641 Self Portraits have also been successfully banned from leaving the UK.
The Fight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder from 1559 has recently been claimed to be part of Nazi loot. The piece, valued at $77 million, was owned by the wife of a Nazi governor during the occupation of Poland in 1939. The work is currently on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Diana Blonska, director of the National Museum in Krakow has headed a research project investigating the origin of the painting. She cites letters from 1946 from the museum to Krakow authorities reported the theft of the painting. The Kunsthistorisches Museum claims that these letters are regarding a different painting and therefore refuses to return the painting to Krakow. This argument has sparked an intense disagreement between two reputable museums and rocked the art history world.
Bruegel Unseen Masterpieces offers a high definition and virtual reality view of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous works. Google, working together with notable international museums, allows you to virtually tour exhibitions and view details of high resolution images. The virtual reality function leads you to a youtube video, which zooms into the painting the Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1562. The website also features interviews with museum curators delving into Bruegel’s paintings. While it is questionable if this is fully virtual reality, Google’s project lets the user see into Bruegel’s world and thought process.
From the website:
"Nearly 450 years on, the art of Netherlandish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder continues to fascinate and inspire. Bruegel / Unseen Masterpieces / - a virtual experience that unites major museums' collections with new technology - brings the hidden details and stories of the artworks to life. Immerse yourself in Bruegel’s richly textured world using Virtual Reality technology and super high-resolution Gigapixel imagery. Gain a unique perspectives and expert insights into this Renaissance master."
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Census at Bethlehem
The most recent edition of The Junket, an online quarterly, featured a personal reflection by Toby Ferris on genealogical identity that hinges on the author’s side-by-side comparison of Census at Bethlehem by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and a painting based on the same composition attributed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The essay serves as a reminder of the rich potential of the close comparison study of original painting and studio copy. Ferris frames his meditation as a distraction from a project of numbering and tallying. It is a rewarding distraction, one that affirms the capacity for comprehension in a mass of data points—a conclusion to which the Brueghel Wiki can certainly be sympathetic.
Paradise with Fall of Man, Private Collection
The United Kingdom has placed an export bar on a 'Paradise with Fall of Man' by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1613). The painting was housed until recently at Alnwick Castle; its owner, the current Duke of Northumberland, had recently consigned it for sale. The temporary ban will be lifted on March 4, 2015, unless a UK buyer puts forth the £6.9m asking price.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The Good Shepherd, Private Collection
Christie’s Mayfair will hold a private selling exhibition, ‘The Bad Shepherd,’ starting October 11 2014. The presentation will put paintings by the Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan Brueghel the Elder, and Pieter Brueghel the Younger alongside works by contemporary artists Jeff Koons, Sarah Lucas, Thomas Shütte, Neo Rauch, Peter Doig, Nicole Eiseman and Jeff Wall.
The Toledo Museum of Art featured a Jan Brueghel collaboration with Joos de Momper, Summer Landscape with Harvesters, as its 'Painting of the Week' for the week of October 3, 2014.
A recent exhibition at Lisbon’s Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, ‘Rubens, Brueghel, Lorrain: Northern Landscape from the Museo del Prado,’ presents 57 landscapes from the Prado’s collection, including Peasant Wedding Feast and the Allegory of the Four Elements by Jan Brueghel the Elder. The exhibition, which also included Brueghel’s Vision of St. Hubert collaboration with Peter Paul Rubens, ran from 3 December 2013 to 30 March 2014.
An exhibition catalogue, El paisaje nórdico en el Prado: Rubens, Brueghel, Lorena by Teresa Posada Kubissa, has been published by the Museo del Prado.
An exhibition centered around the paintings of Jan Brueghel the Elder at Munich’s Alte Pinakothek ran from 22 March to 16 June 2013. The exhibition, called ‘Brueghel: The Paintings of Jan Brueghel the Elder,’ also featured collaborations such as a Madonna and Child in a Flower Garland (with Peter Paul Rubens) and the Seasons allegory cycle (with Hendrik van Balen). The exhibition drew from collections throughout Europe and included works by a number of artists associated with Jan Brueghel the Elder, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Younger and Jan van Kassel.
A catalogue, Brueghel: Gemalde von Jan Brueghel D.A. has been published.
"The Brueghel website, featuring a high standard of scholarship, elegant and effective design, easy and broad accessibility, and the possibility of collaboration, is a model that I’m hopeful other catalogue raisonné projects will embrace."
Philip Dombrowsky, archivist at the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, posted a glowing review of janbrueghel.net to the ARLIS/na website. He details the unique features of our website, particular the collaborative features that "means that, unlike catalogues raisonnés in print, it can be updated at a moment’s notice as new information on the artist comes available." He states the the online catalogue is a more accessible alternative to expensive and inaccessible print catalogues, which is what we strive to do.
