Pieter Bruegel was the artist who created the painting we used as our example on the previous page. The image above is a detail from the 'The Painter and Connoisseur' (1565) which is believed to be his only self portrait.

Important dates in the life and times of Bruegel.

1525 - The exact date and place of Bruegel's birth is unknown. It is believed he was born near Breda in Holland between 1525 and 1530.

1528 - Albrecht Durer, the great German painter and printmaker, died in this year.

1536 / 41 - Michelangelo painted the Last Judgement on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.

1545 - Bruegel became a pupil of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, an artist from Antwerp.

1551 - Bruegel was accepted as a Master of the Guild of Saint Luke, the artists' guild in Antwerp.

1552 - Bruegel travelled through France to Italy. In Rome he worked with Guilio Clovio, the Italian miniature painter. On his return journey across the Alps he made a remarkable series of landscape drawings which influenced much of the scenery in his later paintings.

1555 - Back in Antwerp, he worked for Jerome Cock, the engraver and publisher. He created landscape prints and visual proverbs in the style of Hieronymus Bosch (1450 -1516).

1559 - He dropped the 'h' in his name and changed his signature from Brueghel to Bruegel. The reason why he did this is not known.

1560 - Bruegel concentrated more on painting. 'Children's Games' was painted in this year.

1563 - He married Mayken Coecke, the daughter of his old teacher, and moved to Brussels.

1564 - Bruegel's first son Pieter was born. Both his sons grew up to become successful artists and they restored the 'h' to the original Breughel name. Pieter was also known as 'Brueghel the Younger' to distinguish him from his father. He earned the nickname 'Hell Brueghel' for painting scenes of fire and the underworld.

Michelangelo also died in this year.

1565 - Bruegel painted his most famous work, 'Hunters in the Snow'.

1568 - Breugel's second son Jan was born. He was the more gifted of the two sons and later specialised in still lifes of flowers and landscape painting. He became known as 'Velvet Brueghel' because of his ability to paint textures that were difficult to portray.

1569 - Bruegel died on September 5 and was buried in Notre Dame de la Chapelle in Brussels.