Pieter Brueghel the Younger - Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Bird Trap. Painting of a Dutch winter scene.
English: Winterlandscape with skaters and bird trap Dutch: Winterlandschap met schaatsers en vogelknip or vogelval. German: Winterlandschaft mit Eisläufern und Vogelfalle Pieter Brueghel the elder painted the original in or around 1565. According to the chroniclers of the time, the winter of 1564-65 was particularly severe. The scene is a village in Brabant. If there is a deeper meaning to this panel, it is that the path of man (on the left) is slippery, while the devil has a trap (to the right) waiting for his soul (traditionally depicted by a bird). This is the first painting that depicted the Little Ice Age - LIA - in Europe. - This is the first independent winter landscape in European art. Unlike Pieter Brueghel’s celebrated Hunters in the Snow, this painting was never part of a series of the Seasons. And there is no reference to a religious, mythological or historical story. This is interesting and important because for a long time landscapes served exclusively as backdrops: for biblical stories, for scenes featuring classical gods, or for depictions of important historical events. Here, however, we see only the inhabitants of a village enjoying themselves on a frozen river. Note the detail in the foreground on the right: under a high tree a bird trap has been set up. It consists of an old door propped up on a stick. If you pull the string attached to the stick the trap will slam shut. This is frequently interpreted as an allegory, for example as a symbol of the trap used by the Devil to steal mans soul. But it is equally possible that Brueghel merely wanted to depict an ordinary village scene. The composition was so popular that it was copied many times; today, there are still over a hundred extant copies. This is the earliest and best copy. It is by Pieter Brueghel the younger, the son of Pieter Brueghel the elder. - (from Kunsthaus Zürich catalogue)
Size: 5120px × 3482px
Location: Brueghel Winter Landscape ice skating painting - Kunsthaus Zürich
Photo credit: © Akademie / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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