The Provisional Championship Match: Bruegel v. Sargent

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Here it is, my friends -- eight years later, there are only two undefeated artists left.  Let's find out which one is the (provisional) GOAT.  

Why provisional?  Because, since it's a double-elimination tournament, the winner will still have to hold his own against the winner of the Left Brackets.

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Pieter Bruegel (the Elder)
c.1525 - 1569
Dutch

A number of Bruegel’s paintings focus on the lives of Flemish commoners.... But while these works demonstrate the artist’s attentive eye for detail and attest to his direct observation of village settings, they are far from simple re-creations of everyday life. The powerful compositions, brilliantly organized and controlled, reflect a sophisticated artistic design.... Bruegel’s use of landscape also defies easy interpretation, and demonstrates perhaps the artist’s greatest innovation.... These panoramic compositions suggest an insightful and universal vision of the world — a vision that distinguishes all the work of their remarkable creator.

- The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

• Trounced his own son, Jan Bruegel the Elder, in Round 1.
• Won easily against living artist Daniel Buren in Round 2.
• Scorched respectable Victorian Ford Maddox Brown in Round 3.
• Made it past Botticelli in Round 4.
• Beat Gianlorenzo Bernini in Round 5 by a single vote. YOUR VOTE COUNTS!!!
• Beat Albrecht Altdorfer easily in Round 6.
• Pulled away from Degas eventually in Round 7.
• Surprised Vincent van Gogh in Round 8.

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John Singer Sargent

1856 - 1925
American

Although Sargent painted, showed, and won praise for both portraits and subject pictures at the Salons between 1877 and 1882, commissions for portraits increasingly demanded his attention and defined his reputation. Sargent’s best-known portrait, Madame X, which he undertook without a commission, enlisted a palette and brushwork derived from Velázquez; a profile view that recalls Titian; and an unmodulated treatment of the face and figure inspired by the style of Édouard Manet and Japanese prints. The picture’s novelty and quality notwithstanding, it was a succès de scandale in the 1884 Salon, provoking criticism for Sargent’s indifference to conventions of pose, modeling, and treatment of space, even twenty years after Manet’s pioneering efforts.

- The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

• Beat Juan Sánchez Cotán easily despite crowd support in Round 1.
• Skunked Roelandt Savery in Round 2.
• Skunked Dutch still-life master Rachel Ruysch in Round 3.
• Crushed Henri Rousseau in Round 4 by a two-vote swing.
• Encountered some resistance, but prevailed, against Rembrandt in Round 5.
• Scorched Charles Sheeler in Round 6.
• Beat Vermeer in Round 7. 
• Beat Leonardo da Vinci in Round 8. 

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