Where can you see Pieter Bruegel the Elder in Madrid?

At the Museo del Prado: The Triumph of Death. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

What is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's most famous work in Madrid?

The Triumph of Death, of about 1562, at the Museo del Prado. An army of skeletons sweeps the living into a great coffin, under a burning sky. A king, a cardinal and a pair of lovers who have not noticed are all caught.

When and where was Pieter Bruegel the Elder born?

About 1525, at Breda or Bree, in the Low Countries. Pieter Bruegel the Elder died on 9 September 1569, at Brussels, aged about 44.

What is Pieter Bruegel the Elder known for?

The Triumph of Death hangs in the Prado's Flemish rooms. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Netherlandish painter, of the Northern Renaissance.

Painter, 1525 to 1569

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Bruegel's Triumph of Death is in the Prado, near the Bosch that inspired it: a landscape of burning and killing, in which nobody, from the king to the lovers, escapes.

Born: 1525, Breda or Bree, in the Low Countries
Died: 1569, Brussels
Movement: Northern Renaissance
In Madrid: 1 work in 1 museum

Where to see Pieter Bruegel the Elder in Madrid

Each work with the museum it hangs in. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.

Museo del Prado1 work

The Triumph of Death
about 1562
An army of skeletons sweeps the living into a great coffin, under a burning sky. A king, a cardinal and a pair of lovers who have not noticed are all caught.

The life of Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Almost nothing is certain about Bruegel's early life. He became a master in the painters' guild of Antwerp in 1551, travelled to Italy over the Alps, and came home with a feeling for mountains and distance that he kept for good. He worked in Antwerp and then Brussels, where he died in 1569.

In 1565 a merchant of Antwerp, Niclaes Jonghelinck, ordered from him a set of six panels showing the times of the year. Five survive. Three are in Vienna, Hunters in the Snow among them, one is in Prague, and the fifth, The Harvesters, has been in the Metropolitan Museum since 1919.

What to know

The Triumph of Death hangs in the Prado's Flemish rooms

Born: About 1525, Breda or Bree, in the Low Countries
Died: 9 September 1569, Brussels

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: common questions

Where can you see Pieter Bruegel the Elder in Madrid?: At the Museo del Prado: The Triumph of Death. Museums move and lend their works, so check before a special journey.
What is Pieter Bruegel the Elder's most famous work in Madrid?: The Triumph of Death, of about 1562, at the Museo del Prado. An army of skeletons sweeps the living into a great coffin, under a burning sky. A king, a cardinal and a pair of lovers who have not noticed are all caught.
When and where was Pieter Bruegel the Elder born?: About 1525, at Breda or Bree, in the Low Countries. Pieter Bruegel the Elder died on 9 September 1569, at Brussels, aged about 44.
What is Pieter Bruegel the Elder known for?: The Triumph of Death hangs in the Prado's Flemish rooms. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Netherlandish painter, of the Northern Renaissance.