YMMV / Pieter Bruegel the Elder

• Hilarious in Hindsight: "The Triumph of Death" became considerably more amusing in light of the Skeleton War meme.
• Moment of Awesome: "Dull Gret" might look like a frightening scene, but if you know the story behind the painting, you'd know that Meg is leading a peasant rebellion against The Legions of Hell.
• Nightmare Fuel: "The Triumph of Death"◊, "Dulle Griet" ("Mad Meg")◊ and others.
• Posthumous Popularity Potential: For many centuries his work was seen as vulgar and crass because it depicted ordinary peasants. Only in the 19th century did people finally realize that his canvases were amazingly well painted — and the price for his work went up accordingly.
• Spiritual Successor: Bruegel's earlier works owe a lot in spirit or themes to the works of Hieronymus Bosch: "The Triumph of the Dead", "Mad Meg (Dulle Griet)", "The Seven Sins", "Fall of the Rebellious Angels", "The Big Fishes Eat the Smaller Fishes",...
  • Bruegel's work itself was copied constantly in the 16th and 17th century, mostly by his sons.
  • 18th century Flemish painter Adriaen Brouwer also depicted ordinary people in his work.
  • Bruegel was also an obvious influence on Belgian Comics. His paintings are full of thousands of little anecdotes happening amidst a crowd of not very flattering portrayals of common people. Almost like a modern day comic strip. In fact, Willy Vandersteen (of Suske en Wiske fame) was nicknamed "The Bruegel of The Comic Strip" by Hergé.