Like his younger contemporary, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Pieter Aertsen lived and worked in the Northern Netherlandish city of Antwerp, a mercantile center with great wealth and a dynamic market for art in the 16th century. The city of Antwerp, in present-day Belgium, and Northern Europe as a whole, after Martin Luther's Protestations against the Catholic Church in 1517, was marked by iconoclastic movements - the destruction of religious images and works of art. Antwerp developed into a thriving art center as artists sought patrons outside the Church, and independently sought commissions through art dealers. The shift in subject matter, focusing less on overt religious iconography, is a strong one for regions of Europe that converted to Protestantism. This shift is evident in the works here by Pieter Aertsen, known as The Meat Stall, and that of Pieter Bruegel the Elder with his Return of the Hunters (Hunters in the Snow). These paintings are an example of the incorporation of both religious themes and the subject of genre, that is, the subject of everyday, ordinary, and peasant life; still life and landscape as well, themes that come to define Dutch art. How so? Well, let's take a close look…follow the link to the Google Arts and Culture link below to pan in on details and to virtually visit these two works. Follo For today's post I would like for you to make a comparison between these two paintings. What differences or similarities are the most notable for you? What question do you have about either of these works? Provide at least one comparison statement, and at least one question you have about The Meat Stall and The Return of the Hunters. Follow the links below and post your comments by 11:59 p.m., . This post is being graded as an assignment.
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