Turning A Blind Eye The beauty of art lies in its ability to communicate different things to different people, as a result, the way in which we give meaning to art is subjective. Certainly, this is the case with the paintings of Pieter Breughel the Elder, in particular, the Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, which has been referenced in many different writings since it was created in the late 16th century. In the poem Musée des Beaux Arts, W.H. Auden uses Breughel’s painting as a backdrop for an irony-laced critique on human apathy towards the plight of others. This was not Breughel’s intended message, as it has been re-contextualized to reflect Auden’s ideas, but it is still a powerful statement. Pieter Breughel’s painting, Landscape with …show more content…
Auden first saw the paintings of Pieter Breughel in 1938 while visiting an art museum in Brussels and was impacted tremendously. From there, he would go on to write one of his most renowned poems, Musée des Beaux Arts, in which he uses Breughel’s work as a metaphor for the lack of empathy in society. Coincidentally, this poem was written at a time when Nazism and Fascism were spreading and many European countries were in the midst of political turmoil. In his analysis of the Icarus painting, Auden says that “everything turns away quite leisurely from the disaster” (lines 14-15). The word “leisurely” suggests that there is something more sinister going on, that perhaps the bystanders are willfully looking away from the drowning Icarus. Auden explores this concept further when he writes, “the plowman may have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, but for him it was not an important failure” (15-17). Likewise, this was the case with the passengers on what Auden describes as “the expensive delicate ship” who could not help because they had “somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on” (19-21). Auden reveals, in these lines, that he believes the other characters are fully aware of what has transpired and have either chosen to ignore it or are too busy with their own existence to care, as it does not directly affect
Stephen Dobyns’ poem “The Street” on Balthus’ painting The Street affirms his belief “that no one can see his neighbor” due to people’s concerns with their personal duties in their ordinary paths of life (1). Balthus illustrates people’s compulsion with menial tasks as blinders obstructing vision to the outside world. He positions each subject of the painting to symbolize his or her inherent dexterity and purpose within the society. However, we pick up on his theory that individuals become consumed with their selfish pursuits forming weak and divided communities. Dobyns elaborates on Balthus’ painting to transparently elucidate the deliberation behind the work of art. The structure of Dobyns’ poem reflects the systematic steps of people within the painting as he plainly interprets their motives. In separate stanzas, he relates the story of each person in the painting to reveal their deliberate duties. This emphasizes the artist’s vision of the world. Through poetry, Dobyns brings life to the differing individuals, allowing the reader to enter more fully into the vision of the painting.
In the Enseigne, art is also shown to serve a function that it has always fulfilled in every society founded on class differences. As a luxury commodity it is an index of social status. It marks the distinction between those who have the leisure and wealth to know about art and posses it, and those who do not. In Gersaint’s signboard, art is presented in a context where its social function is openly and self-consciously declared. In summary, Watteau reveals art to be a product of society, nevertheless he refashions past artistic traditions. Other than other contemporary painters however, his relationship to the past is not presented as a revolt, but rather like the appreciative, attentive commentary of a conversational partner.
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.
The fall of Icarus often comes as a cautionary tale about pride and ambition. However, W. H. Auden and William Carlos Williams took inspiration from Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus in their respective poems Musee des Beaux Arts and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus to tell a new tale. The poems use imagery, form, repetition, and alliteration to convey the apathy of the world in the face of personal tragedy.
Although often inspired by natural landmarks and places, crafted landscapes are separate from the land the pieces attempt to depict (Andrews 1). A piece of artwork is a vessel to judge how an artist or culture saw, felt and depicted nature. As of a result, citizens of similar cultures may depict similar themes in their work in a variety of different styles. Both Barret’s 1785/1819 Untitled (Landscape) and Lacroix’s 1763 A Shipwreck display distinct European attitudes towards nature while attempting to captivate the audience in a similar way.
The Landscape with a Calm(figure B) by Nicolas Poussin from 1650-51 incorporates a realistic appearance through its gentle brushstrokes similar to natures simplicity in the oil on canvas artwork. Poussin’s objective is to depict the relationship of nature and man such as a transcendentalist; who accepts the ideas not as a religious belief but as a way of understanding life relationships.
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.
Even though an individual’s response is subjective, hermeneutical aesthetics focuses on interpretive incompleteness as part of the way human, viewers of artworks included, are in the world. An artwork is always experienced in the present from a particular present point of view and its interpretation is the transmission of meanings across time. In this way the artworks discussed in this thesis bear witness to particular historical events and allow for possible projections of those past events into the future. Contemporary life is permeated with a diversity of visual information. In such an atmosphere the hermeneutic approach provides a way of understanding the applications of the meaning we make of visual input. In light of it, the responsibility of both artist and viewer is among the issues discussed in the last part ‘Beyond Horizons’. Here the perspective moves to weave together the threads of ideas and issues that have been identified in the ‘Fusion of Horizons’ section, and reflects on aspects that reverberate beyond the shifting possibilities within the
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.”
Brueghel and Auden contrast Ovid’s myth, as they focus on human’s apathy to suffering. In “The Fall of Icarus”, Brueghel focused his entire piece on the spectators and the landscape, and Icarus was only the backdrop. Auden, similarly to Brueghel focuses on the mundane activities done by spectators and on their indifference to Icarus ‘suffering. In Ovid’s myth the story was told from the Ovid’s perspective who felt the pain and suffering Daedalus’ felt as a result of his loss. Therefore, the spectators looking in amazement acts as a commemoration of Daedalus’’ son. Yet in Brueghel’s painting, Icarus was not only ignored but he was also drawn as proportionately smaller to the spectators; hence showing that he is not considered as significant and that the mundane selfish activities were of higher significance.
The French 1884 oil on canvas painting The Song of the Lark by Jules-Adolphe Breton draws grasps a viewer’s attention. It draws an observer in by its intense but subtle subject matter and by the luminous sun in the background. Without the incandescent sun and the thoughtful look of the young woman, it would just be a bland earth-toned farm landscape. However, Breton understood what to add to his painting in order to give it drama that would instantly grab an onlooker’s interest.
Painted by Vincent Van Gogh during a final burst of activity in Auvers before his suicide in July, Houses at Auvers features many of the characteristic elements typical of Van Gogh; the experimentation with color, texture, and thick brush strokes. This painting depicts the view and landscape in early summer, highlighting the patchwork of houses and the rolling greenery. Van Gogh’s unique, thick brush strokes lead the eyes through the painting, create texture and patterns and also highlight and shadow objects in the early summer sun, while his experimentation with color creates contrast and a bright, vibrant image.
He states, “Waves of anger and fear circulate over the bright and darkened lands of the earth” (6-8). Auden’s use of oxymoron and personification serve as a guide here as he begins to allude to the current conflicts that are beginning. More importantly H.W Auden is also attempting to get the reader’s attention, by stating that people are oblivious to the horrific events that are unfolding. He is disillusioned because humanity as a whole, had become so consumed by their personal affairs, that they became oblivious to the great evils that where unfolding. He elaborates “Obsessing our private lives” and “the unmentionable odor of death offends the September night” (9-11). Again Auden’s use of imagery and personification both allow the reader to visualize the problems that surround the globe and additionally support his enragement with
Similar to many of the van Gogh’s paintings completed close to the end of his life, Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Field with Crows is a representational painting depicting nature around him. This piece is showing the wheat fields surrounding the graveyard of the Church in Auvers-sur-Oise - the graveyard where both van Gogh and his brother, Theo, were buried. The artist shows his interpretation of the wheat field on a stormy day, with three paths converging in the center of the painting's foreground. The center path disappears into the distance with an “abrupt termination” on its way to the horizon, creating a true sense of depth, while the other two ...
“In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. Moreover, unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.” This quote by Ernst Fischer, a German composer, means that truth in art exposes the parts of society, and of life, that no one wants to see. In order for art to change society, it must first reflect the fears and failures of its people. The artist can change how people think of themselves and the world by using less conventional methods of creating art. The artist, in doing this, introduces new ideas of human placement in time and space, new frontiers of thought, that are furthered by the disciplines of science and philosophy. The artist works to introduces unique- and sometimes offensive- ideas so that society will be exposed to new ways of thinking and understanding the world. The artist does this through experimentation with color, style, and form. Therefore, the purpose of the artist should be to challenge how individuals perceive themselves and the offensive aspects of society reflected in art to bring about innovations in the greater society.