Art Masterpiece Today

Today I did my Art Masterpiece presentation. I bring in a different work of art to the kids every two weeks. Today I brought in a painting by Pieter Brueghel, the younger called "Wedding Dance in the open air". It was received with quite a few comments, the kids also had more to say to one another about it. I began my presentation by asking the kids how many had been to weddings and how many had danced at them. I then showed them the painting, it wasn't quite the picture they had in their heads, that was fun. Most thought it look more like a wedding battle than a joyous occasion in their opinion. This particular piece was actually from the early 1600's, high Renaissance. Pieter Brueghel was a Flemish artist, from what I learned his father was an artist as well as his younger brother. His father died when Pieter was 5 so his maternal grandmother taught him how to paint. He spent a lot of time copying work of his fathers with his own variations, mainly he did town folk type work such as this and winter scenes but also did New Testament work. I recognized his fathers winter scene he was actually Pieter Brueghel, the elder. Pieter, the younger would also do ghostly, creepy, dark stuff that earned him the nickname "Hell Brueghel". I found it interesting how much red the wedding attendees wore. That really stood out to the kids also.