Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a Dutch artist who was active during the 16th Century. His life spanned the rise of Protestantism and ended at the start of the Dutch Revolt.
Bruegel specialised in painting genre paintings depicting peasents. Quite often his paintings have hidden meanings and messages, indeed one of his paintings is called "Netherlandish Proverbs" with estimated 110 proverbs are depicted.
The piece pictured below, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus", is a good example of Bruegel's preference for depicting the life of peasants. Although the title suggests the fall of Icarus is the main focus, in fact Icarus' legs can just be seen in the bottom left corner. Instead the main focus is the man with the plough. The predominant colours are green and blue, which makes the orange shirt of the peasant stand out, making sure it is the first thing the viewer notices.
(Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c. 1558, oil on canvas mounted on wood (no copyright))
What can you see in this picture? Do you think the title is misleading? What would your key focus be in this picture? Why?
I like the colour of the paint as it shows the detail of the paint very well. The tone is another good feature as it shows the light and dark of the painting very well
ReplyDeleteThe piece of art has a soft, toned appeal to it. I find that the image has a good reflection of distance, as the perspective of the objects further away appear more blurry. This enhances the realism of the piece and effectively draws in the viewer.
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