The Fall of Icarus by the artist Pieter Bruegel depicts change that was occurring from the Medieval period to the Renaissance. Significance can be found within the word renaissance as it means ‘rebirth’. More importantly the rebirth that was occurring during that era was one where people were looking back to the classical past for inspiration for art pieces. The most elite artist but not people who were peasants as their daily life differed did this. Bruegel offers a perspective in his piece, Fall of Icarus representation of the new age of exploration which serves as an allusion to man’s potential is starkly contrasted with the depiction of Icarus that serves as an allegory for man’s limits, indicating the shift from a euro-centric universe.
This painting was an oil canvas landscape of the sun setting in the horizon of the ocean sea, while the ships were sailing throughout the body of water. The focus on humanism during this period is clearly portrayed by the presence of the plowman, shepherd, and fisherman performing their daily task. Lighter colors are used, which differ from the darker colors that were emphasized during the Dark Age or Medieval period. Shadows can be seen on the ground next to the plowman showing the increasing artistic methods that begin to be utilized. Overall Bruegel makes use of the two and three-dimensional techniques to demonstrate the messages he attempts to reveal about changes in life and thought through his work.
It is interesting that Bruegel contradicts the idea of exploration through the Greek mythology of Icarus alongside daily life. Icarus was attempting to defy human abilities as the story reveals his attempts to fly beyond his capabilities, result in his plunge into the dark green sea. Depi...
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...ept for the audience. This may coincide with European exploration and the desire to expand through military power by the state. During the time period violence was prevalent, thus desensitizing people to the death of man. Overall relating to the ambition and ability of man as well as the limit of man.
Works Cited
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Ovid, Pieter Brueghel and W. H. Auden have (inadvertently) created a lineage convenient to these demands. In Ovid's myth "Concerning the Fall of Icarus" from Metamorphoses[i], he created a character that has become an icon, several millennia later. Pieter Brueghel adopted the icon in the sixteenth century for his painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, which then received famous treatment in the twentieth century by W. H. Auden in his poem "Musée Des Beaux Arts." These three works provide a beautiful, laboratory-quality arena in which to apply various deconstructive ideas: Jacques Derrida's theories of translation and the "dangerous supplement" and Roland Barthes' conception of the myth as language. However, such an inheritance necessarily extends to include the critical work that draws it together.
Wayne, transforms this painting into a three dimensional abstract piece of art. The focal point of the painting are the figures that look like letters and numbers that are in the front of the piece of art. This is where your eyes expend more time, also sometimes forgiving the background. The way the artist is trying to present this piece is showing happiness, excitement, and dreams. Happiness because he transmits with the bright colours. After probably 15 minutes on front of the painting I can feel that the artist tries to show his happiness, but in serene calm. The excitement that he presents with the letters, numbers and figures is a signal that he feels anxious about what the future is going to bring. Also in the way that the colors in the background are present he is showing that no matter how dark our day can be always will be light to
This essay will closely study and describe Rosso Fiorentino’s The Descent from the Cross. The painting depicts the process of Jesus Christ being taken off of the cross.
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W.H. Auden and Pieter Bruegel were both keen observers of the ordinary. In Bruegel’s painting “The Fall of Icarus”, he is able to look past the tragedy of the death of Icarus and focus on the simple scene surrounding the event. Auden’s poem, “Musee des Beaux Arts”, has the same qualities: it glazes over the nature of tragedy, and chooses to instead examine the fact that life goes on while disaster occurs. Arthur F. Kinney highlights this idea of calm in the face of tragedy in a critical essay entitled “Auden, Bruegel, and Musee des Beaux Arts”. Kinney explores Auden’s inspiration for the theme of the poem. The theme, Kinney explains, is not merely generated by “The Fall of Icarus”, but also two other Bruegel pieces. “The Numbering at Bethlehem” portays Joseph and Mary arriving at Bethlehem, while “The Massacre of the Innocents” shows a torturer and his horse in a town square. Both pieces convey the same main theme as “Musee des Beaux Arts”: the complex nature of a substantial event, contrasted with the simplicity of every day life. Each of the paintings reflects on human nature, in the context of apathy amidst tragedy. In his critical article “Auden, Bruegel, and Musee des Beaux Arts” Kinney asserts that “the same statement [is] made by two art forms”, and that Bruegel’s painting and the poem it inspired, “Musee des Beaux Arts”, “juxtapose the unique and the commonplace.”
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Additionally, the styles changed; from Rococo, which was meant to represent the aristocratic power and the “style that (…) and ignored the lower classes” (Cullen), to Neoclassicism, which had a special emphasis on the Roman civilization’s virtues, and also to Romanticism, which performs a celebration of the individual and of freedom. Obviously, also the subject matter that inspired the paintings has changed as wel...
...ed in the discovery and eventual colonization of North and South America. Painters, sculptors, and architects exhibited a similar sense of adventure and the desire for greater knowledge and new solutions; Leonardo da Vinci, like Christopher Columbus, discovered whole new worlds. With a new emphasis on the science, people like Philippo Brunelleschi were accomplishing great feats of artistic and architectural design. The new Renaissance “style” that emerged during this period called upon the classical roots of ancient Greece and Rome but new scientific understanding and a stronger emphasis on the individual also influenced the works created during this period.Bibliography Rice Jr., Eugene F.; Anthony Grafton. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. W. W. Norton & Company. New York, NY, 1993. Helton, Tinsley. World Book Encyclopedia, v16. “Renaissance”, pp. 222-224. World Book–Childcraft International Inc. Chicago, IL, 1979. Vasari, Gorgio. Lives of the Artists. Penguin Books Ltd. London, England, 1987
Mingst, K. (2011). Essentials of international relations. (5th ed., p. 70). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Grierson, Herbert. Cross-Currents in 17th Century English Literature: The World, he Flesh, and the Spirit. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.
Larmann, R., & Shields, M. (2011). Art of Renaissance and Baroque Europe (1400–1750). Gateways to Art (pp. 376-97). New York: W.W. Norton.