Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( BROY-gəl, US also BROO-gəl; Dutch: [ˈpitər ˈbrøːɣəl] ; c. 1525–1530 – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genre painting); he was a pioneer in presenting both types of subject as large paintings. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Bruegel works including Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (c. 1560) and The Hunters in the Snow (1565) have inspired artists in both the literary arts and in cinema.

He was a formative influence on Dutch Golden Age painting and later painting in general in his innovative choices of subject matter, as one of the first generation of artists to grow up when religious subjects had ceased to be the natural subject matter of painting.