December is dedicated to art on Culture Tourist, and you can enjoy Art Blogmas here each day until Christmas. Today, I’m sharing another famous painting depicting winter scenes, Pieter Bruegel’s The Hunters in the Snow.
Art Blogmas 2021
When looking for the winter scenes in the history of art, this Renaissance painting can’t be missed. Today’s artwork is also one of the oldest pictures I’ve included in Culture Tourist’s Art Blogmas 2021.
⤷ Read more: Where to see the paintings of Pieter Bruegel in Belgium
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The Hunters in the Snow
⤷ Where is it? Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is one of the most famous Renaissance painters who lived in Flanders (Belgium) during the 16th century. This painting is part of the medieval heritage of painting the labours of the month. Besides this one, four more of Bruegel’s images from this series are preserved.
In his artwork, Bruegel painted a group of hunters with their dogs returning to the village. The painter included a lot of symbolism in it, too. For example, there are rabbit footprints in the snow in front of the hunters. Showing the animal who escaped them. Almost as the painter is teasing them for their unsuccessful hunt.
Even more interesting than the main topic of hunters is the landscape – something relatively new in the art of that time. He’s showing the traditional architecture of the Flemish village with a church at its centre.
However, a bit less Belgian are the mountains shown in the background – maybe he wanted to add even more of the winter atmosphere with the high peak of the mountain covered in snow?
My favourite detail in this painting is the peasants enjoying the ice skating. It’s one of the oldest representations of that winter activity in art.
⤷ Read more: A guide for the perfect museum visit
If you don’t want to miss other paintings I will share with you in this year’s Art Blogmas, be sure to check in here tomorrow at 7:30 am. Or, follow along on the Culture Tourist Facebook page and Instagram profile.