Icarus painting explication

In the Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Bruegel uses contrasting brightness to express a certain mellow feeling in the presence of lively colors. The painting gives brightness from the sun, but on around all the brightness of the painting there is a certain darkness that is resting on the outskirts of the sun’s rays. Also, Bruegel uses countless symbols that can be interpreted many different ways. Some symbols that Bruegel uses also have symbols generally thought of, an symbols that are shown through his painting that both compare and contrast.

The sun has a large effect on the paint as a whole. In the center of the painting, the sun shines on everything within its contact, giving all those in contact, a bright luminous glow. However, the painting shows large areas that contain overwhelming amounts of shadow that one can’t help to notice. The shadow contrasting the sun symbolizes the negative side of life that coherently exists with the better side of life.

Scanning for life, the thin branching tree is lively with vegetation growing from each of its branches. As the sun sets, the suns leaving gives the tree a rather a dark shadow covering nearly the whole tree except a thin layer of light reflecting off the tree from the sun. Trees are commonly a symbol for life, growth, and doing well in life. The tree having a darkened glow to its bark shows a contrasting feeling to what trees symbolize; Trees symbolizing life, while darkness symbolizing death.

The field worker is plowing his field with the horse. Mindful of his hard work, the field worker works on the field day after day in order to get food in order to sell, eat, and live. Also, farmers often depend on the weather to have a good harvest season. This dependence shows how much of a risk the farmers take to live. A bad season of harvest can lead to a year of starvation and even death. Also, a farmer does not just work for his life; he has to work with nature. Working with nature is a wonderful thing, but innocent nature can turn into a devastating machine that goes against the needs of humanity. Farmers need nature for rain and sunlight. Nature can be cruel and give the farmers a flood, or a storm. Nature has both good and bad qualities. One nature delivers sanctuary, the other is a destroyer of harmony.

The ship on the waters in the gulf is traveling out onto open waters. The section of water where the sun illuminates seems to be the ships destination. Behind the ship, where the ship is sailing from, lies murky water. Behind the ship is murky dark water that gives me the feeling of polluted industrial water that was once pure. It’s water that is pure natural ocean water that was tainted by the pollution of society. The water can just about represent the entire planet, of how society and humanity, over time, has polluted the vast planet earth with its pollutants. This idea of pollutants can also apply to diffusion of ideas. How rumors, facts, and ways of thinking, such as religions, spread around to people.

The ship is traveling with the wind, not against it. This gives me another view on how society needs to work with nature, or else, nature will go against you. Nature is a force to be reckoned with. No man can work against nature and conquer it that is why man chooses to work with nature and conquer with it. Together, humans can create a world where he uses nature as his tool. A tool that will in effect destroy the earth itself.

The ship is traveling out. It seems as if the ship is sailing into unknown waters, unknown water resembling the unknown. People are so fascinated about the unknown because they don’t know what lies there. Society strives to know the unknown so much. Many religions have a god, and an afterlife that is an unknown. The sea today has the deep uncharted depths of the deep blue.

Behind the ship in the murky waters there seems to be a person either diving into the water, or drowning in the water. The person is in murky polluted water. This can symbolize humanity being lost in their own corrupted culture, a culture where false truths are told, and fake headlines are made to shield the population from the truth. Also, the person is drowning in water, an element of life and nature. This can either symbolize a person’s fight in life to survive or succeed, or it can also symbolize a person’s battle with nature, or in another hand, the gods. This drowning person’s struggle to survive can relate to the many Greek myths about heroes struggling against the impossible odds against gods, monsters, and creatures all in order to achieve a goal whether it may be to survive or save another life.

In the distance of the ship, there are mountains, mountains that look rather large from a distant, but still visible. These mountains leave a feeling of restraint. The mountains can represent a cage of imprisonment, limited grounds on which the boat can sail. Limits also remind me of how even after we’ve mapped out this entire earth, after we’ve mapped out each crack and cranny of this planet, there is still the whole universe yet to be discovered. Also, these mountains remind me of how the Greek gods lived on Mount Olympus. From there, the gods would govern or change the live of people who lived below. This can also directly relate on how the farmers have to work with nature in order to survive and live a good life/year. Nature is controlled by the gods, and in turn, working with nature is like working with the gods. To contrast that statement, working against nature, or working to defy nature, is also stating one is working against or working to defy the gods. In many Greek myths, there are many stories of heroes working with the gods to conquer countless monsters and creatures.

Mr. Gallagher, this should be 1,019 words without this sentence telling you that it’s 1,019 words. =D