December is dedicated to art at Culture Tourist, and you can enjoy Art Blogmas here each day until Christmas. Today, I’m sharing with you another famous winter scene, Pieter Bruegel’s The hunters in the snow.
Art Blogmas 2022
This Renaissance painting can’t be missed when looking for the winter scenes in art history. It’s also one of the oldest pictures I’ve included in Culture Tourist’s Art Blogmas 2022.
⤷ Read more: Where to see the paintings of Pieter Bruegel in Belgium
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: The hunters in the snow
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 returning to the village with their dogs. The painter included a lot of symbolism in it, too. For example, rabbit footprints are in the snow in front of the hunters. Showing the animal who escaped them. Almost as if 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 in its centre.
However, a bit less Belgian are the mountains painted in the background – maybe Bruegel wanted to add even more of the winter atmosphere with the high peak of the mountain covered by snow?
My favourite detail in this painting is the peasants enjoying ice skating. It’s one of the oldest representations of that winter activity in art.
If you don’t want to miss other paintings I’m going to share with you in this year’s Art Blogmas, be sure to check in here tomorrow morning. Or, follow along on the Culture Tourist Facebook page and Instagram profile.