Featured artwork
Artist: Pieter Bruegel The Elder
Date: 1565
Museum: Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)
The painting is part of the permanent collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The Picture Gallery was developed from the art collection created by the House of Habsburg. It is one of the more important collections of European paintings in the world and focuses on paintings between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. This is what the museum has to say about it The group of hunters returns to the low-lying village, accompanied by an exhausted pack of dogs. Only a single fox hangs on one of the spears slung over the men's shoulders. To the left preparations are afoot to singe a pig over an open fire. Delightful details such as skaters on frozen ponds have added to the picture's enormous popularity. Yet it is not the sum total of details that make the picture important, rather its overall effect. In a manner both virtuosic and consistent, Breugel evokes the impression of permanent cold. Bruegel also painted landscape in different seasons - and I'll return to him and his paintings as I feature landscapes from the different seasons in the coming year
