Bruegel’s Creative Process Reappraised through the Dulle Griet.

The appearance of Bruegel the Elder’s underdrawing in the Dulle Griet raises questions as to its place in Bruegel’s creative process. The spare, functional, dry medium, black drawing lines that are detected underneath the paint layer clearly do not represent the beginning of Bruegel’s creative process for this complex composition. Indeed, they presuppose the former existence of sketches, a compositional drawing and/or a full-scale cartoon, i.e. the same kind of material that was produced by Flemish cartoon-makers for tapestries and stained glass windows, notably Bruegel’s presumed master, Pieter Coecke van Aelst.