Pieter Bruegel and the Art of Laughter - AAAARG.ORG

acknowledgments xxi
rial in his collection. As so often in the past, I have been assisted by Gerbrand
Kotting and the staª of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische
Documentatie, The Hague; and the staª of the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam.
They all have my heartfelt thanks, as do the many individuals
who helped me obtain some crucial photographs, especially Alexander
Babin, Liza Abramova, Vladimir Matveyev, Alexander Wied, Ron Spronk,
William Robinson, Meg Grasselli, and Jennifer Jones. My final thanks
go to Fronia W. Simpson, who edited the text with her usual care and intelligence.
They also go to Stephanie Fay, Fine Arts Editor at the University
of California Press, whose counsel early on enabled me to shape this
book, and who was extremely helpful at every stage of its preparation.
walter s. gibson
Pownal, Vermont
September 2004