| Biography of old oil painting master Pieter Aertsen what we can copy |
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Pieter Aertsen
Dutch Mannerist
born 1508 - died 1575
Also known as: Pieter Aerston, Lange Pier
Aertsen, Lange Reyer Aertsen, Peter Aertsen,
Pieter Aertsz, Pieter Aertsz., Jonge Pier
Aertsen.
Teacher of: Joachim
Beuckelaer (1530-1574),
Aert Pietersz.
(1550-1612),
Stradanus (1523-1605).
Father of: Pieter
Pietersz (1540-1603),
Aert Pietersz.
(1550-1612).
Relation of:
Joachim Beuckelaer (1530-1574).
Great-grandfather of:
Dirck Dircksz.
Santvoort
(1610-1680),
Pieter Dircksz.
Santvoort
(1604-1653). |
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Aertsen, Pieter (b. 1508-09,
Amsterdam, d. 1575, Amsterdam).
Netherlandish painter, active in his native
Amsterdam and in Antwerp. A pioneer of still
life and genre painting, Pieter Aertsen is best known
for scenes that at first glance look like
pure examples of these types, but which in
fact have a religious scene incorporated in
them (Butcher's Stall with the Flight into
Egypt, University of Uppsala, 1551). His
depictions of food, flowers, and everyday
objects make him important in the
development of still-life painting. Aertsen
was the head of a long dynasty of painters,
of whom the most talented was his nephew and
pupil Joachim
Bueckelaer.
Nicknamed Lange Pier (Peter the Long), born
in Amsterdam, Pieter Aertsen became a citizen of Antwerp
in 1542 where Pieter Aertsen resided until around 1556.
Hosted initially by Jan Mandyn, a gifted
follower of Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Aertsen
links the Dutch and the Flemish schools. His
sons, Pieter Pietersz and Aert Pieterz, also
became painters. Aertsen also trained his
nephew Joachim Beuckelaer. |
During his first years in Antwerp Pieter
Aertsen was
mainly commissioned to make altarpieces for
Dutch churches. Before long Pieter Aertsen also started
to paint scenes from peasant life and Pieter
Aertsen gained a reputation for his paintings of
market scenes and "kitchen" tableaux, which
contained an abundance of fruit, fish,
poultry, cheese, bread and much more.
Renowned today as the painter of "kitchens"
(Christ with Maria and Martha), featuring an
opulent and familiar realism, Pieter Aertsen is in fact
a varied and ambitious painter, tackling
both religious compositions, genre scenes
and portrait: his career can be traced
between 1543 and 1571 with a series of
signed and dated artworks. Today Pieter
Aertsen is
considered as important as Bruegel among
16th century painting: a powerful and
monumental artist, using splendid and frank
tones, announcing the Flemish still-life
developments with such realism and surcharge
of details. |
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His compositions packed at the front with
vegetables reflect a mannerist pathos
specific to the 16th century; however if
religious figuration is often relegated in
the background in a subordinated position (a
scheme that will later have much success,
among his younger cousin and pupil
Beuckelaer for instance, who took over this
style of painting and developed it further),
the religious painter should not be ignored,
with such massive formats and powerful
ambitions. Pieter Aertsen was tormented by iconoclasts
and practiced a heroic and dignified style,
close to and competing with Floris.
Earlier the painting was attributed to
Joachim Beuckelaer,
Aertsen's pupil.
Iconoclast Fury
During the religious riots of 1566, radical
Protestants destroyed statues in Catholic
churches and monasteries. It began on 10
August in Steenvoorde in West Flanders.
Following a sermon by a Calvinist minister,
part of the congregation forced its way into
the nearby St Lawrence monastery and smashed
all the statues. It was the beginning of a
wave of destruction which quickly spread
across the rest of the country. This was the
culmination of a series of events. The
repression of church reform had raised
tensions to breaking point. Moreover,
unemployment and poverty were rife in this
period of economic crisis: the seedbed of
social unrest. Defacing the churches was
justified by the Calvinist belief that
statues in a house of God were idolatrous
images which must be destroyed. |
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