Northern Renaissance · c. 1562
Pieter Bruegel the Elder c. 1525–1569
Museo del Prado · Madrid
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Chapter 1 of 7
Before you stands one of the most unsettling visions ever painted. Pieter Bruegel the Elder made this around 1562, in Antwerp under plague and Habsburg rule. What reads as chaos — thousands of figures across a scorched landscape — reveals a terrible order.
Death has not arrived; it has already won. King, cardinal, soldier, peasant: every rank crowds the canvas, none escape.
Where to see it
Madrid
Room 55A · Level 0
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Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
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