Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569)
Head of an Old Farmer’s Wife
c.1560–1565
Oil on oak, 22 x 18.4 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Such studies of facial expressions, known as tronies, served to capture a fleeting moment of powerful emotion and its resultant expressiveness. Bruegel made these for his own use to be able to incorporate some of them later in his paintings. (APM)