September 12-14, 2018
Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
Place du Musée, B-1000 Brussels
The Bruegel Success Story. Creative Process, Imitation, Emulation, Workshop Organization and Business Strategies
The Bruegel dynasty, defined here as Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his artistic progeny, traded on its success for more than a century. Recent new hypotheses on the creative process and the chronology of the output of the family’s founder as well as an increasing interest in the careers and artistic production of the members of the second and third generations encourage further inquiry and reassessment.
Within the same family, creative genius inspired emulation, imitation and repetition. The careers led by the different members of the Bruegel dynasty, their working methods, the transmission of skills, the passing-down of models, workshop organization and in certain cases, large-scale production, collaboration within and outside the workshop, the role of patrons and the art market are among the many fascinating themes that are open for investigation.
Although priority will be given to technical studies, new biographical data, especially on lesser-known members of the family, will also be highly welcomed. Other proposals will be considered if they offer new insights into the interpretation and reception of works by members of the Bruegel dynasty. These could include studies on sixteenth and seventeenth-century artists influenced by the Bruegel tradition.
The language of the symposium is English.
In order to register online: http://conf.kikirpa.be/bruegel2018/?page_id=16
For the conference program: http://org.kikirpa.be/programs/bruegel2018.pdf