Landscape with the Fall of
This painting is being used by the Bouwman's
because of the "MAN BEHIND THE PLOW"
Bouwman means "Man behind the Plow" or "Farmer"
Painting is by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. (created
thing in this painting is
the fact that the anecdote of Icarus’
pride disappears in the margins of the painting.
attention is focused on the farmer with his plow, on the shepherd
and his herd, on the harbor and the ships – on the economy, in fact.
transformations are taking place in the society and a mythical hero
Icarus has become marginal.
"Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" touches upon the
Greek myth of the tragedy of Icarus. As we know, according to Ovid and
Appolodorus, Icarus, son of Daedalus, took flight from imprisonment
wearing the fragile wings his father had fashioned for him. Heedless of
his father's warning to keep a middle course over the sea and avoid
closeness with the sun, the soaring boy exultantly flew too close to
the burning sun, which melted his wings so that Icarus hurtled to the
sea and death. The death of Icarus, the poet tells us "According to
Brueghel," took place in spring when the year was emerging in all its
pageantry. The irony of the death of Icarus, who has always been an
emblem for the poet's upward flight that ends in tragedy, is that his
death goes unnoticed in the spring--a mere splash in the sea. The fear
of all poets--that their passing will go "quite unnoticed"--is an old
and pervasive theme. That Williams reiterates the theme is significant
in the life of a poet who always felt the world had never fully
recognized his accomplishments. From: "Modern American Poetry"
"The 'kind' of painting on which
Bruegel concentrated was
scenes from peasant life. He painted peasants merrymaking, feasting,
working, and so people have come to think of him as one of the Flemish
peasants. This is a common mistake which we are apt to make about
are often inclined to confuse their work with their person. We think of
as a member of Mr. Pickwick's jolly circle, or of Jules Verne as a
inventor and traveler. If Bruegel had been a peasant himself he could
painted them as he did. He certainly was a townsman and his attitude
the rustic life of the village was very likely similar to that of
for whom Quince the Carpenter and Bottom the Weaver were a species of
It was the custom at that time to regard the country yokel as a figure
I do not think that either Shakespeare or Bruegel accepted this custom
snobbery, but in rustic life human nature was less disguised and
with a veneer of artificiality and convention than in the life and
the gentlemen [artists such as] Hilliard portrayed. Thus, when they
show up the folly of humankind, playwrights and artists often took low
"One of the most
perfect of Bruegel's human comedies is his famous picture of a
country wedding. (Peasant
wedding c. 1568 Oil on wood 114 x 164 cm (45 x 64 1/2 in.)
Like most pictures, it loses a great deal in
reproduction: all details become much smaller, and we must therefore
look at it
with double care. The feast takes place in a barn, with straw stacked
in the background. The bride sits in front of a piece of blue cloth,
kind of crown suspended over her head. She sits quietly, with folded
a grin of utter contentment on her stupid face. The old man in the
the woman beside her are probably her parents, while the man farther
is so busy gobbling his food with his spoon, may be the bridegroom.
Most of the
people at the table concentrate on eating and drinking, and we notice
only the beginning. In the left-hand corner a man pours out beer - a
number of empty jugs are still in the basket - while two men with white
are carrying ten more platefuls of pie or porridge on an improvised
of the guests passes the plates to the table. But much more is going
is the crowd in the background trying to get in; there are the
of them with a pathetic, forlorn and hungry look in his eyes, as he
food being carried past; there are the two outsiders at the corner of
table, the friar and the magistrate, engrossed in their own
there is the child in the foreground, who has got hold of a plate, and
feathered cap much too large for its little head, and who is completely
absorbed in licking the delicious food - a picture of innocent greed.
is even more admirable than all this wealth of anecdote, wit and
is the way in which Bruegel has organized his picture so that it does
crowded or confusing.