Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Netherlandish proverbs and the practice of rhetoric

"The paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder offer us a glimpse into the world of the sixteenth-century Netherlands, a world of peasants and burghers, of civic and religious life. How did viewers in Bruegel's own day look at his art? In order to offer twenty-first-century eyes something of the experience of a sixteenth-century viewer, this book takes an in-depth look at a single painting by the great Flemish artist, his Netherlandish Proverbs of 1559." "Bruegel's painting is a collection of over one hundred proverbs, each acted out in a single-minded manner by peasants, burghers, monks, inn-keepers and other social types. In order to understand what a viewer of the time might have perceived when viewing this image, this book begins by looking closely at Bruegel's composition. From this starting point, the author offers insights into how proverbs were used and understood in the sixteenth century and into period models for organizing collections. Lastly, the author turns to discussions of Bruegel by his contemporaries, and the insights these give us into the viewing of this and other of his paintings."--BOOK JACKET.