Land of Cockaigne by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Land of Cockaigne by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567, is an oil and tempera painting of the Mediaeval myth of a land of plenty, which Bruegel transforms into an allegory of overabundance, sloth and gluttony. A clerk, a peasant and soldier lie around a table strewn with half eaten food, sleeping and lazing about. A knight sits to the side in a lean-to hut covered in pies and pastries, with cheese, an egg, fowl and a roasted pig strewn across the landscape. Pieter Bruegel (Brueghel) the Elder (c. 1525 - 1569) was a Dutch/Flemish painter and printmaker of the Northern Renaissance. Among the first artists to incorporate subject matter from landscape and the life of common people, Bruegel all but invented the art of Dutch genre painting. Bruegel painted a number of religious works but is best known for his lively, allegorical paintings of peasants and witty commentary and on life, sin and virtue. His innovative compositions and carefully observed, realistic details influenced many generations of artists, from Rembrandt through the Realists of the modern era.