Wooded Landscape with Donkeys and Goats, and Castle on Hill in Distance

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This drawing belongs to a group of some 20 similar sheets that record compositions by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (most of which are now lost). Far from direct observation, they are inventions that use landscape motifs for imaginative purposes. Because of the relative novelty of landscape compositions as independent of narrative or devotional subjects, Bruegel’s landscape drawings provided new inspiration for the artists who had access to his works. As such, drawings made after his compositions not only attest to Bruegel’s influence in the rise of landscape as a distinct genre of artistic expression, they also record some of his compositions that would otherwise be unknown.

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