Winter Landscape with Bird Trap

At first sight, the Winter Landscape, of which 127 surviving copies are known, appears to be a small rustic winter scene. The villagers are having fun on the ice and the birds are pecking for food in the snow. It is all far removed from the hectic city, which is recognisable on the horizon by the tall steeple. However, anyone familiar with the engraving Winter by Frans Huys (1522-1562), after Brueghel’s design, with its inscription ‘De slibberachtigheyt van ’s mensenchens leven’(The slipperiness of human life), will realise that there could be more to it than that. Not only does the bird trap mean a quick and inglorious end for the trapped birds, but the ice could suddenly crack as well, or a skater could fall into the hole in the left foreground. An accident is just waiting to happen.