Pieter van Bredael or Peeter van Bredael (1629–1719) was a Flemish painter specializing in market scenes and village feasts set in Italianate landscapes or contemporary, usually, urban environments.
Life
Pieter van Bredael was born in Antwerp in 1629 and was baptised on 19 July 1629 as the son of Peter and Maria Pais. He reportedly joined the workshop of
David Ryckaert III
David Ryckaert III, David Rijckaert III or David Rijckaert the Younger (2 December 1612, Antwerp - 11 November 1661, Antwerp)Peter van Breda Biography in: Arnold Houbraken, ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'', 1718 Armelle Baron, Pierre Baron, L'art dentaire à travers la peinture, www.acr-edition.com, 1 Jan 1986, p. 232
Upon his return to Antwerp in 1648 he married Anna Maria Veldener, the daughter of the prominent sculptor Jenijn Veldener. The couple had eight children of whom three, Jan Peeter,
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
and
Joris Joris, a Dutch form of the given name George, may refer to:
*Joris Bado (born 1991), Burkinabé basketball player
*Joris Bert (born 1987), French baseball player
*Joris Borghouts (born 1939), Dutch Egyptologist
*Joris Delle (born 1990), French foot ...
became painters.Walther Bernt, ''The Netherlandish painters of the seventeenth century, Volume 1'', Phaidon, 1970, p. 19 Several of his grandchildren such as
Joseph van Bredael
Jozef van Bredael, Joseph van Bredael, or Josef van Bredael (14 August 1688 – 2 April 1739) was a Flemish painter known for Italianate landscapes and genre scenes of fairs, cattle markets and villages. He worked in his final years in France.
,
Jan Pieter van Bredael the Younger
Jan Pieter van Bredael the Younger or Jan Peeter van Bredael the Younger (27 July 1683 – 1735) was a Flemish painter known for his cavalry battle scenes and landscapes with genre scenes of village festivals and fairs.Jan Frans van Bredael were also painters.
Van Bredael likely did not start working for his own account until 1651, the year in which he became a master of the Antwerp
Guild of Saint Luke
The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was id ...
. He also joined a
schutterij
Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces ...
, a local civil militia, and obtained the rank of captain.
His pupils included his sons Jan Peeter, Joris and Alexander,
Hendrik Frans van Lint
Hendrik Frans van Lint (1684 – 24 September 1763) was a Flemish landscape and ''vedute'' painter who was part of the group of Flemish and Dutch painters active in Rome. He was one of the leading landscape painters in Rome in the first half ...
Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center ...
Pieter van Bredael is mainly known for his scenes of Roman cattle markets amidst a landscape of buildings, often ruins from Antiquity, Italian pastoral landscapes and less often battle pieces. He also depicted genre scenes such as village festivals, processions and a ''
commedia dell’arte
(; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charac ...
'' scene. Van Bredael's very imaginative market scenes succeeded in illustrating various aspects of everyday town life. Van Bredael was often influenced by Italian architectural forms.
He worked as a copyist and is known to have copied battle scenes of the Dutch painter
Philips Wouwerman
Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (24 May 1619 (baptized) – 19 May 1668) was a Dutch painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes.
Life and work
Philips Wouwerman was one of the most versatile and prolific artists of the Dutch Golden Ag ...
. A drawing of an ''Equestrian Battle'' in the
Mauritshuis
The Mauritshuis (; en, Maurice House) is an art museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection contains works by Johannes Vermeer ...
has been attributed to van Bredael as being a copy after Wouwerman.Annemarie Stefes , ''Niederländische Zeichnungen 1450-1800: Tafeln'', Böhlau Verlag, Köln Weimar, 2011, p. 140