The Arbroath Sermon of Saint John the Baptist after Pieter Bruegel the Elder: A Rare Pastiche
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Authors
Currie, Christina
Discipline
Arts
Subject
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Brueghel the Younger
Conversion of Saul
Massacre of the Innocents
Sermon of Saint John the Baptist
Audience
Scientific
Date
2024Publisher
Peeters Publishers
Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist in the Arbroath Art Gallery is an ingenious interweaving of three works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder: the Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, the Massacre of the Innocents and the Conversion of Saul. It was conceived as a pastiche from the start and presents a stylistically unified painting. Although it has features in common with Brueghel the Younger’s production, several factors make this unlikely. Most striking is the use of liquid underdrawing for the foreground figures, never seen in Brueghel’s work. There are also no known copies of the Conversion of Saul by Brueghel the Younger. Nonetheless, technical and stylistic similarities suggest that the pasticheur might have trained in Brueghel’s studio. He had firsthand knowledge of one of the latter’s versions of the Sermon of Saint John and either the original or a Brueghel the Younger copy of the Massacre of the Innocents.
Citation
Christina Currie, “The arbroath sermon of Saint John the Baptist after Pieter Bruegel the Elder : a rare pastiche”, in: Anne Dubois (ed.), Alla Maniera : technical art history and the meaning of style in 15th to 17th century painting : papers presented at the twenty-second symposium for the study of underdrawing and technology in painting held online : 28-30 March 2022 (Leuven, 2024), p. 234-257.
Type
Article
Peer-Review
Not pertinent
Language
eng