This book is a monograph on Pieter Bruegel the Elder by the Swiss art historian Gotthard Jedlicka. It situates Bruegel in his time - exploring not only his works but also the cultural, artistic, and historical context of the mid-16th century Low Countries and Europe more broadly. It includes Bruegel's early landscape painting, his travels (especially his Italy trip), the influences on his style, the development of his themes such as peasant life, allegory, folk tradition, symbolism, religious subjects, and the environment. The book is richly illustrated with many plates (124), showing reproductions of his paintings and perhaps drawings, enabling readers to follow Jedlicka's arguments visually. There are discussions of Bruegel's technique, iconography, and his place among contemporaries. The revised edition adds a prefatory material and corrections. / Gotthard Jedlicka (born 6 May 1899 in Zürich, died 9 November 1965 in Duisburg) was a Swiss art historian and writer. He studied art history in Zürich, Grenoble, and Paris. Initially he taught at secondary school before earning his doctorate in 1928, followed by his habilitation. From 1939 until his death he was professor for art history at the University of Zurich. Jedlicka wrote numerous monographs and scholarly works on painters such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Manet, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He was involved in editing art magazines and art book series, and he contributed significantly to art historical scholarship in the German-speaking world.