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The Meaning of “The Hunters in the Snow” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Why this winter landscape painting still looks fresh 500 years after it was made
It is probably the most famous painting of winter in all of art. A snow-covered valley, with leafless trees and frozen lakes.
Pieter Bruegel liked a high vantage point. He used it in many paintings. In this work, it enables him to draw us (the viewer) to the edge of the hillside, to look down on the town below alongside the hunters of the painting’s title.
The left side of the image is up-close; the right side opens up to the valley below.
The row of trees helps with the dynamic too. Strongly silhouetted against the pallid landscape, the trees are lined up, evenly spaced but descending in size, rhythmically pulling us deeper into the world of the painting.
The Hunters in the Snow is one of Bruegel’s most accomplished works. It is also one of his most enigmatic and contains an ingenious level of detail. And it’s for these reasons that this remarkable work of art has lasted the test of time.
The Broken Sign
The painting features a group of three hunters returning home from their expedition. Cresting the hill, they overlook a village at…
