When dealing with artists active during periods of crises and turmoil, it is not only desirable, but advantageous for art historians to examine their works within the given historical context. There arc few artists to whom this approach can be applied more beneficially than to Peter Bruegel, the Elder.
Living his last years (d. 1569) in Brussels during a period of intense conflict between Netherlandish Protestants and the forces of Catholic Spain, during a period when religious motives and nationalist interests were barely discernible from each other, it would be surprising indeed if so acute an observer of his surroundings as Bruegel did not give specific visual expression to the events of his time.