WINTER THROUGH BRUEGEL'S EYES

FOREWORD

Nature is omnipresent in Pieter Bruegel the Elder's oeuvre.
As the seasons pass, the painter makes an effort to depict the finest details of nature.

Winter holds a particularly important place in his compositions. To such an extent that Bruegel is considered to be the creator of a pictorial tradition which would become extremely popular in Holland over the following century: the painting of winter landscapes.

CHAPTER 1. A metaphor for passing time

In The Winter Landscape, the Flemish master's technical virtuosity means he is able to reproduce all the subtleties and nuances of snowy landscapes...

frozen areas calling out for people to have fun...

and magnificent winter skies.

It is above all the harmony of colours that characterises the master's originality. Using yellow hues Bruegel manages to render the golden hint of the cold winter light.

All the white tones used by the artist make the work almost monochrome.

Philippe Roberts-Jones, former chief curator at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, goes as far as to see the work as an impressionist piece before its time.

"Here Bruegel proves his innovative mind in a new genre: approaching the world through what makes it visible, the phenomenon of light. What we would one day call impressionism has found its first origins."

Bruegel enthusiasts are not wrong. Nor is the art market: numerous copies of the panel would later be made. There are no fewer than 140 known examples, making this Bruegel's most popular work.

Numerous versions were made by Pieter Brueghel the Younger who set about copying the works that made his father successful in minute detail. He alone is thought to have painted around 50 such copies.

CHAPTER 2. A myriad of anecdotal details

These winter scenes are often accompanied by a litany of picturesque and anecdotal details depicted with tenderness and humour by Bruegel.
Far from moping around due to the glacial cold and withdrawing inside, the inhabitants are taking full advantage of the joys of winter.
In this The Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap under a heavy blanket of snow, the villagers are enjoying themselves skating.

In such cold times, while the boats remained rigid and stationary, prisoners caught in the ice, ice skating became the sport of choice in Brabant.

In this The Winter Landscape, the viewer can thus see couples whirling about the ice in pairs.

While others play with pucks and sticks, a game we would now call ice hockey.

To the side, children are playing with spinning tops.

Encircling the stretch of frozen water, the thatched cottages of the village are all covered with a heavy blanket of snow.

In the heart of the village, the church steeple dominates the scene. Some have recognised it as the Church of Sint-Anna-Pede in Pajottenland, south-east of Brussels. Bruegel had been living in Brussels for two years by this time. He journeyed across the Walloon region and delighted in joining village feasts which he would depict many times in his paintings.

CHAPTER 3. The hidden meanings of Bruegel's Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap

In the foreground, about the same size as the village people playing on the ice, two black crows overhang the scene, perched up in the branches.

They are a transition point between the skaters and the scene which fills the whole of the right-hand area of the painting.

In this area, birds peck at seeds, unaware of the wooden trap teetering just above their heads.

In the harsh Brabant winters, even small birds were tempting prey.

The wooden plank rests on a branch which it is attached to a string. When we let our eyes follow the trap, one soon realises that it goes as far as the window of a nearby house. Once pulled, the string will make the plank fall crushing the birds, unaware of the danger, trapped underneath.

Thus, Bruegel introduces a hidden meaning into his work. A sort of warning against the dangers of thoughtlessness and human temptation.

A reminder of the trap metaphor is echoed by the hole in the ice at the edge of the painting, while the villagers skate dangerously close to it also unaware of the impending danger.

The ice itself, which reflects the sky in ochre yellow hues, symbolises the slippery, uncertain nature of existence.

Despite the joys of winter, Bruegel has hidden a moral message here: life, like ice, is dangerous and slippery. We are never safe from the risk of falling, getting hurt or worse.

The Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap, like the other winter scenes painted by Bruegel, is a decidedly innovative piece. Down the following decades, these snowy representations would give birth to a pictorial tradition in its own right. Hendrick Avercamp (born in Amsterdam in 1585) would be one of the principal/main proponents. Far from being solely contemplative, Bruegel the Elder's winter landscapes often contain a hidden meaning. Beyond the different possible levels of interpretation, these snowy landscapes are above all incredibly lively works, illustrating the cultural mores and customs of 16th century Brabant.