Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus - Loveinartsz

We look at a typical Bruegel painting about Icarus, one of the important stories of mythology that has been told for years. Icarus has been portrayed many times in art history. In many we see him floating in the sky with his wings. What distinguishes Bruegel’s painting from the others is that Icarus does not attract attention at first glance, even when examined at length. Actually, the importance of the picture comes from here. Bruegel wanted to emphasize not the Icarus himself, but what happened around him when he fell into the water. This is evident from the title of the picture: “A Landscape During the Fall of Icarus”. Still, the message of Icarus’s story cannot be ignored here either.

According to the story:

“Famous inventor Daedalus works with Talos, his nephew and apprentice. As time passes by the ear of the horn, Daedalus with jealousy throws Talos down from a high place. In order not to be caught, he took his son Icarus and came to Crete, to King Minos. At that time, the king looked for a place to close his son, Minotaur, who was half bull and half human, because Minotaur is very dangerous. The king asks Daedalus to build a labyrinth. The minotaur is closed into the labyrinth. Meanwhile, Minos, who wins a battle with the Athenian king Aegeus, asks the Athenians to send fourteen children to feed to Minotaur. Aegeus’ son Theseus also goes in this group, but his goal is to kill Minotaur. He also enters the labyrinth and finds the way out of the maze after killing Minotaur with the rope given by Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, who is in love with him. After the incident, King Minos, who thinks Daedalus helped Theseus, imprisons both Daedalus and Icarus in the labyrinth. Considering what they can do to escape, Daedalus collects the feathers spilled on the ground, glues them with wax, and makes wings for himself and his son. Warns Icarus before flying: don’t fly too high, the sun will melt the wax and you will fall to the ground; Do not fly low either, then they will see you and you will be caught. Icarus does not listen to his father, his wings melt from wax and sink into Aegean waters while flying high.

In the painting, we look down on the landscape, as is often the case in the works of the 16th century Northern Renaissance artist Bruegel. In general, the painter who studies subjects such as village life / daily life; This is the only painting he made, inspired by a mythological story. In fact, we see an ordinary daily life here, too. If not examined carefully, it is not even possible to understand that the painting has anything to do with Icarus. But Bruegel’s paintings must always be carefully studied, they contain so many details that one is simply amazed. Here, too, Icarus is in a tiny corner, with only its legs and bits of feathers falling from its wing.

Another interesting detail is that Icarus, whose wings are said to melt because he flies close to the sun in legend; in gloomy weather, the sun setting on the horizon, falling into the sea in the opposite direction.

The shepherd, fisherman and farmer in the picture is mentioned in the poem about the legend of Icarus in the book of Metamorphosis by the Roman poet Ovidius. Bruegel was also inspired by this poem while painting:

“Here is a fisherman watching them / fishing with his flexible staff / or a shepherd leaning on his stick / or a farmer watching them / at the head of the plow handle / and they are confused / believing that those who fly above the clouds are only Gods.”

The striking point is that people are mentioned in this poem that people watch Icarus and Daedalus in amazement, and in the picture they are not even aware of Icarus.

In the watercolor painting of Hans Bol, a Dutch painter, we see a completely opposite composition. In Bol’s impressive painting, the figures are the same as his poetry. However, this time, everyone is looking towards the sky in amazement, just as it is stated in the poem.

At this point, it is necessary to dwell on the Dutch proverbs that Bruegel refers to with the figures and details he has placed in the painting, as he did in many of his paintings. The picture shows the corpse of an old man hidden among the bushes. However, even this corpse does not attract anyone’s attention, everyone continues to work. Here Bruegel is thought to refer to the proverb “The plows do not stop because a man is dead”, thus explaining why Icarus was also ignored. In another interpretation, it was said that Bruegel emphasized that “legends do not touch the lives of ordinary people very much”.

In addition, sword and money bag seen at the bottom left of the picture “Sword and money need good hand.” It refers to the Dutch proverb. On the other hand, the grain sack that appears to have been thrown over the stone tells the saying, “Nothing ends from the seed planted on the stone.”

Bruegel’s paintings are actually full of such messages and lessons. Just like the story that is the subject of this painting… The legend of Icarus has also been told so far because of the lesson it gave. This story emphasizes the importance of not being too greedy in anything in life, but also listening to the word of the grown-ups. But it should not be forgotten that the curiosity and courage that Icarus had defeated brought to him. If he hadn’t followed his curiosity, perhaps he would have died elsewhere for nothing at another time.

Icarus; It has been the subject of countless works from painting to literature, from music to cinema. So much so that even Melih Cevdet Anday has a poem called “The Death of Ikaros” written with reference to Bruegel’s painting.

Sources:

1. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1369001
2. https://www.themagger.com/ikarus-un-dususu-sirasinda-bir-manzara-tablosu-bruegel/
3. http://lebriz.com/pages/lsd.aspx?lang=TR&sectionID=0&articleID=1081&bhcp=1
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_4fmJnx68E
5. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0karus%27un_D%C3%BC%C5%9F%C3%BC%C5%9F%C3%BC_S%C4%B1ras%C4%B1nda_Bir_Manzara
6. Umberto Arte ile Sanat, 292-97

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