The Suicide of Saul

The Suicide of Saul is an early attempt by Bruegel to reconcile landscape and figure painting. Despite the scale of the subject, at 33.5 cm × 55 cm (13.2 in × 22 in) it is rather small compared to his later landscape subjects, but has an "astonishingly dense and highly dramatic composition". If it is compared with one of his last works, The Magpie on the Gallows of 1568, its weaknesses are apparent: the foreground and background are not yet reconciled and the jutting outcrop of rock in the centre see 2nd detail is a Mannerist device which one may see again in The Procession to Calvary. However, the distant world landscape is seen through a shimmering haze, which seems to have the effect of emphasizing the foreground detail, and this does represent a new stage in the evolution of Bruegel's depiction of naturalistic landscape.

This appears to be the first time this subject was put in a painting, although there had been works in other media, such as manuscript miniatures.

The painting has been cut down, with a thin strip of c. 1cm removed along the bottom, and a rather wider one, c. 4cm, along the top. These portions were later re-added, with new pieces of fruitwood panel, in Vienna in 178–82. The transition is visible in the paint today. A third fallen figure with Saul and the armour-bearer, included in the underdrawing, was never painted.