In the Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Bruegel, it focuses on the myth of Icarus when he flies too high into the sky, melting his wax wings, and falls into the seas where he ends up dying. The whole story is compacted into this one oil painting and there is a lot going on with the people and the civilization as well as the dark and the lights Bruegel uses to depict the story.
The first thing I noticed would have to be the setting sun. The sun is small compared to everything, but there is still this strong vibrant glare coming from it that’s visible only in the middle of the painting which separates the two dark sides on the left and right. The brightest part would have to be the sky. There’s this huge spot of yellow that then gets reflected onto the vast sea which covers 1/3 of the entire painting. The sea appears to be warm and friendly. Boats and ships are sailing on this beautiful day with no problem. The white mountains appear peaceful and serene. Even the island and the civilization look calm when there are usually conflicts and pollution in cities. There’s also this bird flying up in the air on top of the civilization. When following the sun, it led me to the man in red. The land he is standing on catches the sun’s brightness, making it more yellow than green like grass should be. The man looks like he’s working really hard. His left hand holds onto a whip while his right holds onto a plowing instrument attached to a fine brown horse that supplies the power to cut and lift the land. He is dressed in red under a grayish-blue dress with brown stockings and black shoes. The color red is considered a warm color. It works well with the yellows and the oranges. However, he is significantly bright red which contrast with the blue and green and the ploughman is also the largest figure on the painting so it separates him from everything else. The land he is standing on is also elevated from the sea so I pay more attention to him since the perspective of the painting is one who is looking down.
Behind the ploughman is this other man wearing a solid blue shirt and black pants while resting his weight upon his long crook. He’s also a working man. Indicated by the herd of sheep surround him and the brown coated dog beside him, he is probably the shepherd of the myth. Even though he comes before the ploughman when following the path of the sun, the ploughman’s red shirt made him more significant than the passive blue that the shepherd has on and blue also blends in with the bluish green ocean. Both the ploughman and the shepherd are facing the left side. The ploughman works his way to the left as the horse drags him along, leading to this dark area of already plowed land. The darkness extends the depth of the area. The shepherd is just gazing into the sky like he’s pondering. They’re both facing the left, but there really isn’t anything interesting happening there. Usually faces provide direction to something significant, but in this painting it’s misleading instead. The two workers are so busy with their job that they are unaware there is someone drowning in the sea on the right. There is a pair of legs sticking out from the water, but his legs are so small compared to the ploughman that it’s almost unnoticeable. I wasn’t even able to notice Icarus until I saw the fisherman dressed in white located on the bottom right of the painting. Even the fisherman did not notice Icarus’s existence when he fell, making a big splash in the sea and causing the water to ripple. No one seems to care or pay attention to Icarus. The large ship close by was sailing away as well, indicated by the direction of the wind blowing on the ship’s sail.
The color of the water also changes in the part where Icarus drowned. There is a clear difference that the colors are darker. Breugel uses shades of dark blue and dark green which eventually isolates into black as oppose to the bright blue and green in the middle of the sea. It’s so dark that it doesn’t even look like a part of the sea when you look at the painting in a smaller view. The trees on the bottom right appear mossy and dead unlike the trees on the left. The ones on the left are full grown, lively, and nicely structured with a perfect tone of green. You can see every twig and branch, but the tree on the right looks like a complete mess.
The title of the painting explains the importance of both landscape and Icarus in the painting. However, landscape is the dominant focus because Breugel calls it “ landscape ‘with’ the Fall of Icarus.” Icarus is nothing but a small detail in the bigger picture.
Many time people tend to belabor at the moment too much that they miss the big picture. There is so much going on in the painting focusing on landscape that Icarus is lost within the picture. The bright colors of the sun in contrast to the darks sea on the right, demands focus and Icarus who is in the darker side is hidden. Even the ploughman, shepherd, and fisherman are so busy with their work whether it is on the land or sea, takes no notice of Icarus as their heads are turned in the opposite way or is facing down. Icarus could have lived if he listened to his father, but he disregarded his words and flew too high. Thus led him to his downfall.
Overall, the painting was captivating. It’s such a busy piece of art, but it symbolizes so much and tells so much about Icarus. He was the main character, but his ignorance was what left him to his death. If he had listened to his father, he wouldn’t of fell and could have still been living if he had lived a balanced life like the men who are now glowing in the painting.
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