Abstract
Not only is the large Crucifixion panel (1615) in the Kerry Stokes Collection signed by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, the finest version of that essential subject by its prolific painter, but it also provides the most reliable version of a presumed lost Crucifixion composition by his celebrated father Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The crowded composition shows vignettes of holy figures, tormentors, and ordinary onlookers, many of them in contemporary dress, characteristic of the Bruegel family heritage, all presented before a mountaintop setting of Golgotha and above the circular Temple of Jerusalem. The original painting likely stemmed from shortly after 1560, and it accords well with other Bruegel Calvary subjects by both father and son.
Keywords: Pieter Brueghel, Bruegel, Calvary, Crucifixion
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1520/1525–1569) remains a most familiar and beloved painter, renowned for his images of peasant leisure and labour. But he also produced significant works of religious art, some of which surely disappeared in the iconoclastic cleansing of churches that began late in his life, first arising in August of 1566. How exciting, then, to rediscover a major religious work by Bruegel, a Crucifixion, carefully replicated in multiple copies by his painter son Pieter the Younger (1564–1637/1638), who frequently made use of both his father's designs and finished paintings throughout his productive career. As we shall see, echoes of the same lost work were adapted for the same subject by Bruegel's other painter son, Jan Brueghel (1568–1625). But the best version of this missing masterpiece can be found in the Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder not only left a lasting artistic legacy in his forms and favorite themes, but also in the achievements of his two painter sons, Pieter the Younger (1564–1637/1638) and Jan Brueghel (1568– 1625). Jan was celebrated as one of the most distinguished and well-rewarded painters of the early seventeenth century. He served as a court painter for the archdukes in Brussels and produced some of the most expensive paintings of the day, including sumptuous still life flower bouquets as well as finely wrought miniature landscapes, often crowded with tiny figures.
