Renaissance Artist: Pieter Bruegel

So, next on our timeline....

is Pieter Bruegel or Brueghel.  
This is thought to be a self-portrait.  Kind of scary, if you ask us!  :-D

I never heard of the artist myself, except for having used the K12 art curriculum for 3 years.  :-)  They introduce these pieces of art.

pics from Wikipedia

A stop at the library helped branch out our mini study.

We focused on Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists: Pieter Bruegel.  However, I always get multiple because my kids love to browse through nonfiction books.  They seldom check them out on their own though, nonfiction books that is.

I decided we were going to do a bit with the "Hunters in the Snow" again.  Here is an art documentary that we watched part of.  I think this is the first art critic/documentary the boys have ever watched.  :-)  I recommend the clip for older kids as the younger ones probably just wouldn't be all that interested.  :-D  It's good for my boys to see things from different perspectives and learn to think more like a "critic".  It's something I'd like them to do more with....look at a piece of art work and discuss it.

I found an art lesson shared online regarding atmospheric perspective and we did it.  You can find it at ArTree.

K-2 art lesson power point final products

grades 3-6 art lesson power point final products

We also watched a couple clips just before the power point lesson, refreshing their memory about the Renaissance (Pieter Bruegel was a Renaissance Artist)

The Renaissance:  Was it  a Thing?

FYI:  this is VERY fast paced.  For older kids for sure.  We had already went through the Renaissance time period with both the 4th and 6th grader so it was more of a review.

and in the middle of it.  :-)

Arc of the Arts: Atmospheric Perspective
Almost TOO slow, after the last clip.  LOL

We also spent some time  on "Netherlands Proverbs".

An interesting piece of art, to say the least.  Ha!

It's been said that Bruegel painted this to go along with his typical theme of "absurdity, wickedness and foolishness of humans".  :-D  Someone so kindly put together a table with the 112 proverbs and idioms that could be identified in the piece of art.  :-)  It's found here.  Quite interesting, to say the least.  :-)  Just a FYI:  it could be be considered crude in some regards.  I skipped over a few of them.  :-D Got us talking about what a proverb was....a short saying, typically well-known, that teaches a lesson.  This conversation also brought up the book in the bible Proverbs.  A little definition I liked: 

A proverb was used to make the reader listen, think about, remember, and then practice.

Of course, we ended with an acronym with his name.  :-D  This time, however, I wrote his name up on the board and we added characteristics as we went along.  This was suppose to  allow us to do an abbreviated study of Bruegel as we were having an abbreviated school week.  Didn't happen though.  We worked into the next week.  Oops!  :-D  Oh well, quality vs. quantity, a wise person told me, is the key!