Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525 - 1569) was a Netherlandish artist who worked primarily in Antwerp and Brussels and is known for his pioneering work in landscape, images of folk culture, and allegories. The earliest sources that mention him are Ludovico Guicciardini’s 1567 Description of the Low Countries and, more extensively, Karel van Mander’s account of his life in his Schilderboek of 1604. He is the father of Pieter Brueghel the younger (b. 1564) and Jan Brueghel (b. 1568), both of whom also became artists of note.