Volume 12–4 (Low Res).pdf - U&lc

26
FAMILIES TO REMEMBER
HE BRUEGELS
Artist's rendition of a Pieter (the Elder) Bruegel engraving .
Every creative person walks a tightrope. With every new project comes the
same old challenge: how to maintain a successful posture without falling into
the trap of repeating yourself. Who doesn't have a few tried-and-true (slightly
used) campaign ideas tucked away? Who isn't tempted to fall back on the
same sure-shot photographer?...the hot illustrator?...the few agreeable
typefaces that seem to work well for every occasion? It makes life easy.
In the matter of typography, which is something we know a thing or two
about at ITC, there seem to be a few typefaces that are inordinately popular.
They so valiantly satisfy the needs and sensibilities of designers, you may
wonder why we bother to offer such a vast variety of others. The reason is:
to keep life from becoming too easy...too routine—too deadly.
To be sure, typeface families, like human families, have their old "grandees."
Names like Medici, Hapsburg, Windsor, Romanov, Astor, Vanderbilt,
Ford, Rockefeller, Rothschild, roll off our tongues. But there are many grand
old families, in both categories, whose names may not come to mind immediately,
yet are nevertheless uncommonly interesting and worthy.
To refresh your memory and, we hope, your creative appetite, the next few
issues of U&Ic will present some of these notable families—both genealogic
and typographic—that are deserving of your renewed attention.
According to the record books, there were no fewer
than twelve painters in this distinguished Flemish
family. Without doubt, the best known of them is
Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, who lived from 1525 to
about 1569. By the time he was 26, he was admitted
to membership in the Antwerp Academy. As was
expected of any painter worth his salt in those days,
he also made the mandatory trip to Italy to study
the great Renaissance masters. Although he was
deeply affected by what he saw, he did not go home
and mimic the Italians' grandiose biblical and mythological
themes in Roman architectural settings.
Instead, he concentrated on one of the here-andnow
problems of Flemish life. His country was
desperately fighting off political and spiritual domination
by Spain and the Catholic Church. Though
Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, was not a blatantly religious
painter, his works were preachy and moralizing
in their own inimitable way. Instead of portraits
of holy families and saints, he painted peasants.
Instead of fantasies of heaven and hell, he painted
country landscapes...the seasons...peasants at work
and peasants at play. It earned him the nickname,
"Peasant Bruegel." But what Bruegel meant to express
in his pastoral scenes was his deep conviction that
God was at work in nature and in man...and that
God, nature and man were one.
Pieter's eldest son, Pieter, the Younger, was known
as Pieter "Hell" Bruegel. He lived from 1564 to 1637.
He first learned to paint alongside his father, and he,
too, became a member of the Antwerp Academy.
Unlike his father, his religiosity was undisguised. He
painted such fierce, diabolical versions of hell, with
ghostly figures and raging fires, that he went down
in history with the middle name,"Hell."
A second son, Jan "Velvet" Bruegel (c.1568-1625)
was born just a few months before the death of his
father. Jan was brought up by his grandmother, who
was the widow of the miniaturist Pieter Coecke. It is
believed that she may have given him his first lessons
in painting, but he eventually went to Antwerp
also, to study, and then to Italy. He was fortunate
to find a patron in Italy, and later served as court
painter to the Archduke of Austria. When he returned
home, he became a friend and assistant to Peter
Paul Rubens. "Velvet" Bruegel was much in demand
by Rubens and other figure painters for his skill in
providing landscape backgrounds for their canvases.
He was particularly ingenious in his handling of
intricate animal, flower, shell, fruit and jewel forms.
A grandson of Jan "Velvet" Bruegel, named Abraham,
was born in Antwerp in 1631, but early on took