Challenging the conventional wisdom that Pieter Bruegel the Elder eschewed Italianate influences, this title demonstrates how the artist's later peasant paintings reveal a complicated artistic dialogue in which visual concepts and pictorial motifs from Italian and classical ideas are employed for a specifically Northern phenomenon. '... Richardson provides a detailed visual analysis of the painter's artistic intentions... Recommended.' Choice 'Richardson's major contribution lies in reminding us of the artistry of Bruegel's art, its sophisticated awareness of the complex artistic milieu in which it was produced.' Renaissance Quarterly '... to the often-repeated thesis that Bruegel's contemporaries responded to his paintings chiefly by deciphering their disguised symbolism, Richardson offers a more plausible alternative, which deserves further exploration.' Burlington Magazine