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Let’s do another painting review. I’m just going to look at a nice old painting and share what I notice. This time perhaps the most famous winter painting by a Dutch master; Hunters in the Snow, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565.
Little background first, the painting was made during the little ice age, temperatures in Europe were on average about 1-2 degrees lower than today and this resulted in very cold and white winters, which are rare here today.
For several centuries people were used to cold winters with lots of snow and ice and we see this in the art of the time.
Not just in all the wonderful paintings, but it might also be the reason why we’re still obsessed with White Christmases and why Charles Dickens remembered snowy winters;
Anyway, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was Dutch (yay cloggies) and made tons of amazing art. So let’s get to this famous painting.
First things first, the most important part of the painting; DOGS, all good boys;
The painting shows us hunters returning, it has not been a fruitful hunt, all I can see is one dead fox. For three hunters, with spears and a pack of dogs, I reckon this was a good day for the animals in the woods, but not a good day for the hunters;
They are well dressed and at least look warm, but their main purpose is to escort us into the painting, it feels like we’re expected to follow them.
It is interesting to see little dogs, they might be pups who came along to learn the job or, more likely, just small dogs to get into burrows and tunnels;
But perhaps their hunt is not yet done, look, prints in the snow, looks like a rabbit!
The dogs noses are all close to the ground, there’s hope for the hunters yet;
We also see a bird trap, the hunt may have been less successful as hoped, but maybe someone will eat bird tonight:
Nearby is an inn, they seem to be preparing food outside.
The inn is called ‘This is golden deer’, the sign being broken may also be symbolic for the failed hunt, or maybe just a general scene of poverty and faded glory;
But at least someone got lucky because they are preparing what appears to be a pig/boar, they use straw to make a very fierce fire, probably to burn the bristles off the animal:
We see this in many of these paintings, apparently these 3 legged chairs were considered very suitable as improvised sledges by Dutch kids, can’t help but wonder if their parents approved:
The watermill isn’t doing much work today;
A woman carries firewood, mostly twigs so it’s for either starting a fire or making a very hot short lasting fire, like for when you need to heat up an oven for bread. People often underestimate how physical the work women did was back then;
Oh my, look at that, is it me or is there a dark figure hanging around in the corner?
Scary!
Or is it just another badly brought up man having a wee?
But not everybody has to work today, lots of people are having fun on the ice.
Some are spinning tops and yes, what the others are doing looks a lot like some sort of curling;
I can almost imagine the dog slipping and sliding around on the ice, being a bit confused and the people laughing. I’ve been on the ice with my dogs, although they’re often not quite sure what to make of it, they soon learn to love it, it makes chasing balls even more fun;
There’s always someone falling;
There’s always a couple, dancing, flirting, having fun. Is the toddler their child or the little brother one of the youngsters should be looking after?
Yep, ice hockey, or kolfing, ice golf or whatever they called it back then;
A lovely look at the village main street. As someone who always lived in cities I can’t help but be a bit enticed by the idea of all these families knowing each other, everyone on the ice being neighbours, related, old friends or foes.
In Amsterdam I knew no one on the ice;
Oh no!
Drama!
A chimney fire!
Open fires would burn in every house, especially in winter, needed for warmth & cooking. With many houses still having straw roofs, wooden beams and wattle & daub walls, and no fire fighters, this fire is even more of a disaster than it would be today;
In the back we see a castle, not very smart to position it next to a mountain that will give your enemy a high view point.
Then again, these mountains are fantasy anyway.
Have you ever been to the Netherlands?!
We don’t do mountains.
Yeah, but no, nice try Pieter 😉
Finally, even further in the distance we see a town, a seaside place with more than one church, defensive works and probably a harbour, goodness I wish I could walk through those streets.
And yes, that’s a horse with sledge on the ice!
If you’ve enjoyed this review, check out this list of reviews of art, books, films, tv shows, etc. here:
https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2022/11/14/my-reviews/
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