#flemish painting

Madonna from the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, 1432.

Madonna vomGenter Altar von Jan van Eyck, 1432.

beautiful-belgium:

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Magpie on the Gallows (1568)

“Bruegel’s painting was created the year after Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba, arrived in the Netherlands, sent by the Spanish king, Philip II to suppress the Dutch Revolt. The gallows may represent the threat of execution of those preaching the new Protestant doctrine, and the painting may allude to several Netherlandish proverbs. There is a direct allusion to the Netherlandish proverbs of dancing or shitting on the gallows, meaning a mocking of the state. It also alludes to the belief that magpies are gossips, and that gossip leads to hangings. And that the way to the gallows leads through pleasant meadows. It is not known why or for whom the picture was painted. Its date of 1568 makes this painting one of Bruegel’s last works before his death in 1569; indeed, perhaps his final work. Bruegel asked his wife to burn some of his pictures on his death, but told her to keep the Magpie on the Gallows for herself.”

Source

beautiful-belgium:

EYCK, Jan van
Small Triptych (central panel)
c. 1437
Oil on oak, 27,5 x 21,5 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

Cornelis Troost - Harlequin, Magician and Barber: the Deceived Rivals

1738

Pastel and brush in gouache on paper

Mauritshuis, The Hague

loumargi:

Karel Dujardin- Boy Blowing Soap Bubbles.Allegory on the Transitoriness and the Brevity of Life.

1668