Also, if it weren’t for the fact that part of the title refers to Icarus, I would have no idea that this painting was even remotely related to him, let alone anything to do with Greek mythology or culture. The herder, farmer, fisherman, and ship have the most detail (especially the tree to the left just in front of the herder) and draw a lot of attention. All there is is a small city with a few mountains that don’t really command your attention nearly as much as what is going on in the foreground. For instance, as you mentioned the piece has “Landscape” listed first, but there doesn’t seem to be much emphasis put into the land scape. Still utilizing the humanist philosophy for many paintings, the Northern Renaissance began to move towards more landscape paintings and portraits. This was also another trait of the Northern Renaissance. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is very straight forward piece of art, but at the same time it’s obvious much effort was put into drawing the landscape (hence the title begins with the word landscape, and not ‘The Fall’). Because of the lack of religious icons in this image, it is apparent that this piece was a true product of humanism art. perhaps the sun shining down on the legs of Icarus as a representation of God. Had the painting taken place at an earlier time, it may have had more of a religious tie i.e. Especially striking is that this particular painting deals with a death, in this case the death of Icarus. This gave the story a slightly religious twist to it, but the painting did not give this idea. Publius Ovidius Naso (also called Ovid), a Roman poet who originally created the main poem about the Fall of Icarus, wrote, ”Some, while catching fish with a trembling rod either a shepherd leaning on his staff or a plowman on a plow saw these and was stunned, and they who were able to snatch the sky, he believed were gods.” (Wikisource). There is no mention of God, no religious symbols. ![]() The first part I’d like to bring discuss that really makes this piece a good representative of humanism is that it appears to be very secular. Before I begin my analysis, I’ll simply state that humanism can be broadly defined as an emphasis on human individuality and less emphasis on religion (Wikipedia). After analysis and research, it’s amazing to study about the story of Icarus and how this more humanist view of the story, exemplified through this image, came up during the Northern Renaissance. I especially enjoy this painting because looking at it quickly, one would not know the whole story behind it. ![]() It has been interpreted that the painting is a representation of mankind’s ignorance towards suffering. The main notion in this image is that everyone is continuing their everyday tasks. Even with prior warning about flying too close to the sun from his father, he still flew too close and his wings crumpled and fell apart. He had wings made of wax by his father, Daedalus. These are supposed to be the legs of Icarus, who drowned after he flew too close to the sun. Very discrete, there is an image of legs sticking out of the water behind the large ship in the painting. Painted around the 1560s (the true date is unknown, because the survived painting is supposedly a copy of the original), the background is set with a shepherd tending his small herd, a plowman doing work in his field, a fisherman, all set in the backdrop of a small bay that contains a few ships. Rife with meaning through thorough analysis and observation, it can be seen that several things are going on in the image. ![]() I would like to analyze the painting, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, painted by Pieter Bruegel.
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