Pieter Bruegel invites us to study and to admire his work down to the tiniest element. He was a trained and experienced miniaturist, draughtsman, and print designer: skills that combined with his brilliant painting technique enable us to read every image and every detail. Bruegel created a world of unprecedented visual richness: it is impossible to take in everything at once, as there is so much to see. Alongside this rich viewing experience, Bruegel always offers layers of visual and intelle...

Art is artificial; it is a fake version of reality. The imagery of art represents, illustrates suggests and provides stillness- it sharpens our perspectives and deepens the experience of reality.

Esther Tielemans's work aligns opposites, like the two- and three-dimensional, the abstract and figurative, reality and artificiality. It forms an environment in which the experience of the new precedes the habitual of the familiar.

The authors of this book, Maria Barnas and Hans den Hartog Jager, de...