Peasants and pies
— Though his art is famous across the globe, Pieter Bruegel the Elder himself remains a mystery.”
Not much is known about Pieter Bruegel the Elder, whose place among the greatest of European painters is nonetheless undisputed.
Bruegel moved to Brussels in 1563, marrying Mayken Coeck van Aalst that same year. As his business thrived – his slightly antiquated style was much appreciated in paintings and more widely in engravings – he would leave the city in search of inspiration.
The sixteenth century Pede valley, a quietly rural part of the Pajottenland always in sight of the spires and steeples of Brussels, probably supplied the artist with numerous landscape elements as well as animal and human subjects.
Today the valley is rather thick with housing, not all of it in the best of taste, but something of Bruegel’s world is still discernable in certain churches and fields. These are marked by a placard whenever they appear on the “Bruegelroute”, with a reproduction of the relevant painting and a snippet of (Flemish) text.
See also:
Pajottenland
While Flemish towns retain a certain unchangeable character, the Flemish weather does not.
- Originally published: 29 Nov 2009 in Walking
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
The Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen is one of the better reasons to visit Rotterdam.
- Originally published: 11 Mar 2009 in Museums & Galleries
Kuurne Brussel Kuurne
The 2010 Kuurne Brussel Kuurne was marked by strong winds and heavy rain. We caught up with the riders on the Oude Kwaremont.
- Originally published: 28 Feb 2010 in Cycling
The white stuff
Home of the world’s most famous white beer, Hoegaarden is surrounded by the vast wheat fields needed to brew the stuff.
- Originally published: 14 Aug 2010 in Walking
Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels
In the presence of plenty.
- Originally published: 28 Jul 2008 in Museums & Galleries
Stop ACTA!
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Let's put a stop to ACTA.
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Hello, you. I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name as those guys. I'm a user experience consultant, expatriate, traveller, writer and pro cycling enthusiast.
I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert. I started my website in 2005 and I've been running it ever since.
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Over a year in the making, Dopeology.org is my latest personal project: a topology of doping in thirty years of European pro road cycling.
I collected information from thousands of sources, then I modelled and published it via a lightweight user interface.
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