The Fall of the Rebel Angels (Bruegel)

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The Fall of the Rebel Angels
File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Fall of the Rebel Angels - RMFAB 584 (derivative work).jpg
Artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Year 1562[1]
Type Oil on panel
Dimensions 117 cm × 162 cm (46 in × 64 in)
Location Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

The Fall of the Rebel Angels is an oil-on-panel by Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted in 1562. It is currently held and exhibited at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

Description

Painted in 1562, Bruegel's depiction of this subject is taken from a passage from the Book of Revelation (12, 2-9)[2] and reveals the artist's profound debt to Hieronymous Bosch, especially in the grotesque figures of the fallen angels, shown as half-human, half-animal monsters. Together with Dulle Griet and The Triumph of Death, which have similar dimensions, it was probably painted for the same collector and destined to become part of a series.[3]

The composition with a central figure placed among many smaller figures was favoured by Bruegel at this time, not only in other paintings such as Dulle Griet, but also in the series of engravings of the Vices and the Virtues which he had just completed for the Antwerp publisher Hieronymous Cock.[4] The archangel Michael and his angels are shown by Bruegel in the act of driving the rebel angels from Heaven. Pride was the sin which caused the fall of Lucifer and his companions, and the conflict of good and evil, vice and virtue, is a theme which recurs constantly in Bruegel's work.[5]

Gallery of details

  • Details
  • Pieter Bruegel I-Fall of rebel Angels IMG 1458.JPG

    A Good Angel

  • Pieter Bruegel I-Fall of rebel Angels IMG 1446.JPG

    The Fallen Angels

  • Pieter Bruegel I-Fall of rebel Angels IMG 1455.JPG

    Fighting the Rebels

  • Pieter Bruegel I-Fall of rebel Angels IMG 1457.JPG

    Monstrous Demons

  • Pieter Bruegel I-Fall of rebel Angels IMG 1456.JPG

    The Archangel Michael

  • Pieter Bruegel I-Fall of rebel Angels IMG 1459.JPG

    The Great Battle

  • Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Fall of the Rebel Angels (detail) - WGA03407.jpg

    Half-human and half-animal monsters

References

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External links

  1. ↑ dated and signed "M.D.LXI BRVEGEL"
  2. ↑ King James Version, 12, 2-9
  3. ↑ Cf. Pietro Allegretti. Brueghel. Milan:Skira, 2003. ISBN 0-00-001088-X (Italian)
  4. ↑ Compare Bruegel's engravings Pride and Gluttony.
  5. ↑ Max Seidel, Roger H. Marijnissen. Bruegel. Pt.2, Random House, 1985. ISBN 0-517-44772-X
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