PAINTING LIFE
An excerpt from Chapter 1: Madrid, 1972
. . . . My first encounter with the world of Bruegel paintings occurred in 1972, when I visited Madrid, Spain, and went to its great art museum, the Prado. The museum was full of many wonderful, old-master paintings, but there were two Bruegels that I found so powerful and full of meaning I could not pass them by. I had to give them a second look and, though I did not realize it at the time, was destined to think about them for years afterwards.
The first, Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Bird Trap painted in 1565, depicts feelings we all have about social change. At first sight, it appears to be a straightforward, idyllic winter scene of a Flemish village, complete with snow-capped houses and skaters enjoying an afternoon of leisure. A city looms in the background of an idealized rural village. A large crow, far too ominous to be just another bird, is perched on a branch in the upper right corner. The other birds bear a curious resemblance to the humans. Both the crows and humans are painted mostly in black. The two birds perched on the branch of the tree that overhangs the pond are painted the same size as the people skating. We are left to wonder. Could it be that the birds and the people share some common predicament? Given the trap, could the predicament be one that foreshadows some kind of impending doom?
To put it another way, Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Bird Trap is far more than a 16th century Flemish landscape. The painting makes you think. The more you think about it, the more you wonder what Bruegel was trying to portray. Are the birds in the lower right corner about to be caught in the trap because they have taken the bait too casually? Or, is it the people who are in danger, although seemingly skating without a care in the world, on what is all-too-thin ice? Should you pose these questions, you would hardly be alone. . . .
Painting Life: The Art of Pieter Bruegel, The Elder. Copyright© 2006 by Robert L. Bonn. |