Soldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) from The Large Landscapes

Soldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) from The Large Landscapes

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A group of soldiers with halberds and long staffs are represented on the hilltop of a magnificent alpine river valley. Three of the soldiers are resting in the foreground, two appear at the crest of the hill, and several others are shown strolling at the left and right of the composition. Printed after a design by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, this image of Soldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) is one of a series of twelve prints known as the Large Landscapes. All of them reflect the deep impression the dramatic mountain vistas made on Bruegel as he traveled through the Alps on his return from Italy around 1554. Carried out primarily in etched lines that have the appearance of engraved ones, the unsigned Large Landscapes were executed by the brothers Joannes and Lucas van Doetecum and published by Hieronymus Cock through his Antwerp shop, At the Four Winds. The prints, which were among the most widely circulated and celebrated of Bruegel's images, allowed a large audience to become acquainted with his strikingly naturalistic and broad-eyed conception of landscape.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Soldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) from The Large LandscapesSoldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) from The Large LandscapesSoldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) from The Large LandscapesSoldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) from The Large LandscapesSoldiers at Rest (Milites Requiescentes) from The Large Landscapes

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.