Bruegel's "Fall of Icarus": Ovid or Solomon?

Author(s): Lyckle de Vries

Source: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 30, No. 1/2 (2003),
pp. 4-18
Published by: Stichting Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties
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Accessed: 10-02-2020 10:51 UTC

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Bruegel's Fall of Icarus: Ovid or Solomon?*

Lyckle de Vries

For Jan de Jong

In I912 a hitherto unknown work by Pieter Bruegel the
Elder, The fall of Icarus, was acquired for the Musees
Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (fig. i).' In 1935 a
second version surfaced in a private collection (now in
the Musee David et Alice van Buuren, Brussels). The
painting in the Musees Royaux is generally considered
the better one, but recently its authenticity was more or
less ruled out by technical examination. Its condition is
not perfect, moreover, and its attribution has been ques-
tioned since its discovery. All the same, it shared the
rapidly growing fame of its putative maker. The renown
of Icarus attracted the attention of poets, whose works
further contributed to its fame. It seems as if W.H. Au-
den's interpretation of the painting in his famous
"Musee des Beaux Arts" of 1938 was accepted by most
art historian as valid and final.3 I hope to prove it a "cre-
ative misunderstanding."
When Icarus entered the Musees Royaux, the sad sto-
ry of this mythological figure was not a common subject
in poetry.4 Nor had Bruegel's reputation reached its
present height. As late as 1938, Aldous Huxley com-
plained that Bruegel was underrated, but by then his
grudge against Kunstforschers (sic) had lost its justifica-
tion.5 The rise of Bruegel's fame between 1912 and 1938
was not just the result of Forschung, however. The mu-
seum had campaigned for its artist, and the confronta-
tion of both versions of Icarus in its galleries was a suc-
cessful move in that operation.6 When Auden visited the
Musees Royaux in I938, the reputation of Icarus was al-
ready well established. There he could see three other
Bruegels apart from Icarus: The fall of the rebel angels,
The census at Bethlehem, and The adoration of the Magi.
In Bruegel's work, as Auden saw it, human suffering
is noticed by hardly anybody who is not directly in-
volved. To the poet, this confirmed his growing belief in
universal human failure.7 As an example he mentioned
the children who are skating whilst "the aged are rever-
ently, passionately waiting/ for the miraculous birth."
In Bruegel's Census, there are children playing with
sledges on the ice, but they have no skates. The adults in
that painting are not "passionately waiting," nor does
the Bible describe them as such. The description seems
to fit The adoration of the Magi better, but that composi-
tion contains no playing or skating children. The poem
apparently integrates a number of impressions, caused
by more than one painting. Auden's memory either
failed him or was overruled by his creativity when he
wrote about the executioner's horse that "scratches its

* Bernhard F.H. Scholz, professor of comparative literature at 4 The best-known exception is Gottfried Benn's poem of 1915,
Groningen University, kindly allowed me to participate in his seminar which does not refer to the recently discovered painting; see G. Schus-
on the literary tradition of the Icarus story. Without his inspiration, ter (ed.), Gottfried Benn: Sdmtliche Werke, 7 vols., Stuttgart i986-92,
this article could not have been written. vOl. 1, pp. 39-40.

I Mus~es Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Inventariscatalogus van
de oude schilderkunst, Brussels i984, inv. nr. 4030: The fall of Icarus,
canvas, 73.5 x 112 cm. Bought from The Sackville Gallery, London, in
1912.
2 D. Allart, "La chute d'Icare des Mus~es Royaux des Beaux-Arts
de Belgique a Bruxelles," in J.P. Duchesne et al. (eds.), Melanges Pierre
Colman (Art 5Fact I 5), Liege i996, pp. 104-07.
3 W.H. Auden, Collected poems, London 1976, pp. 146-47, "Mus&e
des Beaux Arts."
5 A. Huxley and J. Videpoche, The elder Peter Bruegel, New Yor
1938, pp. 9-23.
6 On the painting's reputation see Allart, op. cit. (note 2).
7 In his article on this poem Verdonk considers it to be a matter of
fact that Bruegel and Auden held the same view on this point; see P.
Verdonk, "'We have art in order that we may not perish from truth':
the universe of discourse in Auden's 'Mushe des Beaux-Arts'," Dutch
Quarterly Review ofAnglo-American Letters 17 (1987), pp. 79-96.

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4

iPieter Bruegel, The/all ofIcarus. Brussels, MusZes Royaux des Beaux Arts

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 6 LYCKLE
innocent behind on a tree." Striking as this image may
be, it does not refer to any identifiable painting in the
Musees Royaux.8
Auden's poetic license should have put researchers
on their guard, but his interpretation of The fall of
Icarus, evoked in the last eight lines of the poem, has
long dominated art- historical writing. It was commonly
believed that the painting shows "how everything turns
away/ quite leisurely from the disaster." The farmer
plowing in the foreground considered Icarus's fall "not
an important failure," and the crew of the ship "sailed
calmly on," although they had seen "something amaz-
ing, a boy falling out of the sky." This interpretation
treats Icarus as the main figure in Bruegel's only compo-
sition with a mythological subject. By relegating the
drowning boy to the middle distance, he supposedly
demonstrated his creative originality. Moreover, it is a
well-known Mannerist trick to complicate compositions
by moving what is most important to a place where it is
not seen at first glance. Both views are not easily com-
bined, and the second one conflicts with the traditional
view of Bruegel, held by many until not too long ago, as
the defender of the indigenous Netherlandish tradition
of "realism" against "corruptive foreign influences"
such as Italianate Mannerism.
When William Carlos Williams composed a series of
ten poems on paintings by Bruegel in I962,9 the painter
had become one of the world's most famous, and discus-
sions about the status of Icarus no longer affected the
painting's popularity. Williams described paintings
from different collections, which indicates the use of a
book with reproductions rather than a tour around the
museums of the world. Some of his lines seem to echo
the comments that might be found in such a book,
rather than describing purely visual impressions, such
as "a painting/ that the Renaissance/ tried to absorb."
The poem about Icarus, the best of the series, ends with
the lines: "unsignificantly/ off the coast/ there was/ a
splash quite unnoticed/ this was/ Icarus drowning."
8 Auden may have been recalling Bruegel's Massacre of the inno-
cents, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Even there, though,
no horse scratches its behind on a tree.
9 W.C. Williams, Pictures from Brueghel and other poems: collected
poems I950-I962, New York i968.
IO Werumeus Buning's "Ballade van de boer" ("Farmer's ballad")
of 1935 predates Auden's poem. It may or may not have been inspired
London I955, VIII, i83-235.
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DE VRIES
This lack of concern intensifies Auden's image of spec-
tators who did notice something, deciding however to
turn away from the disaster. Bruegel's Icarus was to in-
spire many more poets, but few were able to reach Au-
den's or Williams's level.'0
When art-historical research began to focus on
Icarus, the contrast between the boy's sad fate and the
imperturbable farmer remained the key to nearly all the
interpretations. Recently, however, other elements of
the composition, such as the farmer and the landscape,
have been given due attention. Perhaps the painting's
separate components should be discussed one by one:
Icarus, farmer, landscape and ship. This implies a ques-
tion which has so far not been addressed openly: to
which genre does this painting belong, and what is its
main subject?
ICARUS Most authors cite Ovid's Metamorphoses as the
painter's source. Here Daedalus is the main protagonist,
whereas his son is presented as an innocent child.
Icarus's ruin resulted from his father's bold venture,
much more than from his own playfulness and youthful
disobedience." Daedalus had "turned his thinking/ to-
ward unknown arts, changing the laws of nature." A
work of art illustrating this story without showing
Daedalus's hubris is highly improbable. The second
version of Bruegel's composition was occasionally seen
as the solution, since it includes the flying Daedalus who
is absent from the "original." Was this the original after
all? Or was it a copy of the original state of the damaged
version in the Musees Royaux? Neither can be the case,
since more details of both copies are at variance with
Ovid's text. The three eyewitnesses mentioned by the
poet observe Icarus's flight, not his fall. The shepherd,
the fisherman, and the farmer, "who rests his weight...
on the handles of the ploughshare," look up at the sky,
mistaking father and son for gods. These three figures
are present in Bruegel's work, but they ignore Icarus's
"forsaken cry." Auden could not have written his fa-
by the plowing farmer in Bruegel's Icarus, but it does not mention the
falling boy. The refrain "...en de boer hij ploegde voort" ("...and the
farmer he went on plowing") has long served as a generally known qua-
si-proverb. See J.W.F. Werumeus Buning, Verzamelde gedichten, Am-
sterdam 194I, pp. I85-87.
I I Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. R. Humphries, Bloomington &
 Bruegel's Fall of Icarus: Ovid or Solomon? 7

~~~~. ~~~~2 Frans van Hogenberg, Al hoY,

: -utching Nuremberg,
Germanisches Nationalmuseum

mous poem if Bruegel had followed Ovid's text literally.
This painting, in other words, does not illustrate the
Metamorphoses.
Ovid is not the only possible source for illustrations
of Icarus's fall. In the late middle ages, there were sever-
al reworkings of the classical poem in circulation in
which father and son seem to have exchanged roles.
Daedalus is presented as a clever man who knows how
to escape from danger, whereas Icarus is held fully re-
sponsible for his fall. An Ovide moralise from the four-
teenth century brands him a fool.'2 In Petrus Bercho-
rius's version, Icarus is the prime example of
disobedience and presumption.'3 A third version com-
pares Icarus's flight with the following of Christ on two
wings: love of God and love of one's neighbor. Whoever
flies too high, as Icarus did, prides himself on his
Hooghvaardicheyd" ("On presumption") from Coorn-
strength, forgetting that he received that strength from
God. Again, Icarus personifies presumption. 14 This
would remain his role in sixteenth-century emblem
books.
The literary genre of the emblem was still young in
Bruegel's day. The number of emblem books he could
have consulted is very small, one of them being a vol-
ume by Gilles Corrozet published in Paris in I540 and
reissued there in 1543. The icon of one of its emblems
shows a falling Icarus, without his father. The explana-
tory poem advises the reader not to stray from the gold-
en mean. An emblem from a work by Johannes Sambu-
cus, published in Antwerp in I 566, warns against
overweening ambition.'5 It is better to resign oneself to
one's fate and to find happiness in the place where one is
born. The icon shows, among other figures, a falling
Icarus. In later emblem books, too, Icarus personifies
haughtiness or presumption.s In the chapter "Vande
hert's Zedekunst dat is wellevenskunste (Ethics, or the art

12 C. de Boer et al., (eds.), Ovide moralisd: poeme du commencement troduction, Amsterdam '954, lines 229-3 I .
du quatorzit'me sigcle publitF d'aprt's tous les manuscrits connus, Wiesbaden Is A. Henkel and A. Schone, Emblemata: Handbuch zur Sinnbild-
i966, lines i674-86. kunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart 1978, cols. I617
I3 W. Reynolds, The Ovidius moralizatus of Petrus Berchorius: an in- (Corrozet) and 775 (Sambucus).
troduction and translations, Ann Arbor 1971, lines 306-12. i6 N. Reusner I58I, 0. Vaenius i6o8, F. Schoonhovius i6i8; see
14 C. de Boer (ed.), Ovide moralise' en prose: edition critique avec in- Henkel and Schone, op. cit. (note Is), cols. i6i6-I7.

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 8 LYCKLE DE VRIES

of Plowman.20 The author well),

living
an example of those who "venture more than is in their
power" and thus "deceive themselves."'7
The publication of Frans van Hogenberg's etching Al
hoy (All is grass; fig. 2) in 1559 was more important for
Pieter Bruegel, I imagine, than the emblems he may
have seen. Amidst the many small figures illustrating
common Netherlandish proverbs, the falling Icarus
holds a central place; as in the icons of the emblems dis-
cussed, his father is not depicted. Apparently, a large
audience was expected to recognize the young man with
the failing feathers, and to understand the meaning of
his fall. As with all the figures and scenes in the print, he in which he demonstrated the importance of art theory
was given a legend to preclude any uncertainty: "Die te
hooghe wilt vlieghen/ Die sal sijn selven bedrieghen"
("He who wants to fly too high will deceive himself').'8
The insertion of a falling Icarus in Bruegel's Brussels
composition therefore alludes to the proverb "Pride
goes before a fall." The absence of Daedalus and the
subordinate position of his son in this painting indicate
that it is only remotely related to the Metamorphoses. It
is no history piece, therefore, and its interpretation
should not center on Icarus.
The literature on Bruegel is immense, and the num-
ber of publications about his Icarus legion; it is impossi-
ble to give more than a limited selection here, chosen al-
most at random. Even so, it is clear that most
interpretations do focus on Icarus. Wyss, for instance,
tried to demonstrate that Bruegel followed Ovid's text
with great precision.'9 The author identified the
seascape as the strait between Scylla and Charybdis,
which is associated with Phaethon in one of Abraham
Ortelius's maps. With a dazzling somersault Wyss
jumped from that falling youth to the equally unfortu-
nate Icarus and, consequently, from Italy to Greece.
Van Gils took a very different approach by accepting
that the painting and Ovid's poem are incongruous. He
proposed solving the interpretational problems by
changing Icarus into an illustration of The vision of Piers
from the above. Bruegel supposedly saw the landscape
seems to have selected uncon-
nected fragments of this text for the construction of his
argument and, to aggravate matters, he changed details
of the painting. The floundering figure in the water is
supposed to be a fallen devil with wings and claws,
which are more clearly visible in a good reproduction
than in the painting itself. Van Gils's observation, how-
ever, that the farmer's clothing differs from what one
would expect in a genre scene, is of great importance. I
will return to this later.
THE LANDSCAPE Back in 1950, Gombrich gave a paper
for understanding the way in which landscapes were
looked upon in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries." The young speciality, practiced mostly in
Germany and the Netherlands, was received with en-
thusiasm in Italy in the early sixteenth century. All the
same, it enjoyed no high status, since it was deemed to
give pleasure to the viewer by appealing to his feelings
rather than to his intellect. The search for complicated
intellectual programs in painted landscapes seems to
have been made superfluous by this momentous publi-
cation, but many attempts were nevertheless made to do
precisely that.
On the occasion of the exhibition Pieter Bruegel d. A.
a/s Zeichner in Berlin I975, Muller Hofstede delivered a
paper in which he stated that Bruegel experienced the
real landscape as an aesthetic phenomenon that could be
reshaped in art. This supposedly explains why his work
is so "natural." The author referred approvingly to
Gombrich's paper, but by contrasting Bruegel's natu-
ralness with Patinir's "symbolic construction of land-
scapes" he apparently made an exception for this pio-
neering artist, which goes against the tenor of
Gombrich's words. The friendship between Bruegel
and Ortelius inspired Muller Hofstede to elaborate his
interpretation in a way that does not follow directly

I7 D.V. Coornhert. Zedekunst dat is wellevenskunste, ed. B. Becker,Pieter Bruegels Landschaft mit dem Sturz des Ikarus," Zeitschrift fir
Utrecht I982, p. 438: "...meer bestaan dan zy vermoghen... huer zelf Kunstgeschichte 5I (I988), pp. 222-42, and B. Wyss, Pieter Bruegel,
bedrieghen." Landschaft mit Ikarussturz: ein Vexierbild des humanistischen Pessimis-
i8 Reproduced in P. Roberts-Jones, Bruegel: La Chute dIcare, mus, Frankfurt I990.
Freiburg I974, p. 28. A late i6th-century, anonymous print illustrating 20 J.B.F. van Gils, De val van Icarus of het Visioen van Peer de
proverbs, entitled De blauwe huyck (The blue cloak), also shows a falling
Ploeger: een andere kijk op Pieter Brueghel, Wageningen I962.
Icarus, and it too is reproduced in Robert-Jones's book. 2I E.H. Gombrich, "The Renaissance theory of art and the rise of
I9 B. Wyss, "Der Dolch am linken Bildrand: zur Interpretation von
landscape," in Norm and Form, London I966, pp. 107-21.

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 Bruegel's Fall of Icarus: Ovid or Solomon? 9

from a Stoic point of view "as an 'idea' articulated in art, rately. In his volume on The world landscape Gibson ac-
as a primary example in a visual form of a world that is as knowledged the importance of Gombrich's paper, but
efficient as it is beautiful, since it is organized in a sensi- he found that the influence of art theory should not be
ble way."" overestimated, since that would detract attention from
The discussion was refueled by the publication of important new developments in the sixteenth century,
Falkenburg's book on Patinir in i985.23 It applied the
such as the flowering of geography and cartography. He
iconographical method, then in use for over two decades convincingly interpreted the world landscape with its
for the interpretation of Dutch genre scenes, to six- high horizon and helicopter view as an armchair travel-
teenth-century landscapes. Its influence echoes in the er's look upon the structure of the earth compressed
catalogue of the exhibition Masters ofI7th-century Dutch into a narrow space.27 This reads as a pithy paraphrase
landscape painting, held shortly after, in which Bruyn ar- of Muller Hofstede's description of all of Bruegel's
gued that all landscapes served to propagate a religious landscapes as "a primary example of a world that is as ef-
truth: "...in this respect seventeenth-century landscape ficient as it is beautiful, since it is organized in a sensible
painting continued what had been initiated in the works way." From around I 560 onwards, the world landscape
of Patinir, Bruegel, and their contemporaries and fol- was gradually superseded by different types of land-
lowers in the sixteenth century. It is the image of a tran-scape in which the relationship with cartography be-
sient world, where the lonely traveler, beset by sinful came lost. Other compositional schemes were devel-
temptations, may hope for eternal bliss after death."24 oped for armchair traveling.
In the same publication, Schama stipulated that early Writing about Bruegel's Icarus, Gibson more or less
seventeenth-century landscapes show "a world that has repeated what he had said in his earlier monograph on
been deprogrammed." It is unclear if he recognized the the artist, in which he discussed the painting in a chap-
same absence of iconographical programs in landscapes ter on landscapes.28 Both books leave the interpretation
of the century before. He wrote that the landscape in of The fall of Icarus largely undiscussed. This apparent-
Bruegel's Icarus "functioned... as the primary message- ly means that Gibson saw Bruegel's painting as a world
landscape, a comprehensive view of a large part of the
carrier" without, however, specifying its message,2 and
his interpretation, like those of most art historians, cen- world that could evoke all the associations appropriate
ters on the human figures and the supposed contrast be- for a comparable composition in which human figures
tween them. In a further contribution to the catalogue, play a less prominent role.
Sutton seems to have been somewhat overruled by his It is of great importance that Gibson distinguished
co-authors. He tried to offend nobody, but "acknowl- between different types of landscape. Unlike Falken-
edging these 'meanings,' however, does not preclude burg and Bruyn, he did not interpret the rustic land-
the landscape's traditional function as delectation" scape, with its many references to the topography of the
Low Countries, as the carrier of religious messages.
(Sutton's quotation marks). It is to be regretted that this
dissident voice did not make itself more clearly heard.26"Pleasure, not preaching, I believe, constituted the chief
The confusion coming to the surface in this catalogue appeal of rural landscapes for viewers of the seventeenth
stimulated Walter Gibson to devote two books to the century." The safe countryside that could easily be
subject, in which he treated two types of landscape sepa-reached from the bustling towns, was "the locus of the

22 J. Muller Hofstede, "Zur Interpretation von Bruegels Land- igth-century Dutch landscape painting, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum),
schaft: asthetischer Landschaftsbegriff und Stoische Weltbetrach- Boston (Museum of Fine Arts) & Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum
tung," in 0. von Simson and M. Winner (eds.), Pieter Bruegel und seineof Art) I987, pp. 84-103, esp. p. ioo.
Welt, Berlin 1979, pp. 73-142, esp. p. 138: "...als kunstlerisch ar- 25 S. Schama, "Dutch landscapes: culture as foreground," in Sut-
ton et al., op. cit. (note 24), pp. 64-83, the quotation being on pp. 67
tikulierte 'idea,' als gestaltetes Inbild einer vernunftig geordneten, des-
halb sowohl zweckmassigen wie schonen Welt." and 66 respectively.
23 R.L. Falkenburg, _oachim Patinir: landscape as an image of the26 P.C. Sutton, "Introduction," in Sutton et at., op. cit. (note 24),
pilgrimage of life, Amsterdam & Philadelphia I988 (diss. Amsterdampp. I-62, esp. p. 57.
I985). 27 W.S. Gibson, Mirror of the earth: the world landscape in sixteenth-
century Flemish painting, Princeton i989.
24 J. Bruyn, "Toward a scriptural reading of seventeenth-century
28 W.S. Gibson,
Dutch landscape paintings," in P.C. Sutton et al., exhib. cat. Masters of Bruegel, London 1977, pp. 38-4I.

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 10 LYCKLE
1<
3 Detail of fig. I
perennial human longing for peace and tranquility."29
The landscape of Bruegel's Icarus includes agriculture
and fishing, but it is no "rustic landscape." It is not the masses and the exploited peasants of his time. Renger
charming area where the town dweller frees himself
from his cares, and where the countryman is toleratedscholarly
as one.3' He demonstrated that the visual arts of
a picturesque figure in the background. The armchair
traveler who surveys the world that Bruegel shows him
cannot ignore the farmer and his labor.
THE SHIP Apart from the farmer with his horse and
plow, the ship is the most prominent element of
29 W.S. Gibson, Pleasant places: the rustic landscape from Bruegel to
Ruisdael, Berkeley, Los Angeles & London 2000, p. XXVii.
3o L. Silver, "Pieter Bruegel in the capital of capitalism," in J. de
Jong et al. (eds.), Pieter Bruegel (Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek
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DE VRIES
Bruegel's composition. It has not received much atten-
tion so far, and it was mostly mentioned because its crew
does not react to Icarus's fall (fig. 3). As Auden phrased
it: "and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen/
something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,/ had
somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on." If Bruegel
had wanted to show how the sailors ignored the "splash
quite unnoticed" he would have had to make the vessel
bigger. This would have been appropriate if the drown-
ing boy had been given more prominence. The conclu-
sion must be that the ship is not just there to show its in-
difference to a man in danger.
One of the rare publications relevant to this point is
Silver's article on Bruegel's series of prints depicting
ships; an aspect of the artist's oeuvre which has hitherto
been largely neglected.30 The author rightly pointed out
that in the Netherlands in the middle of the sixteenth
century, industry began to surpass agriculture as the
main source of income. Industry depends on trade, and
trade flourishes through shipping. The ships in
Bruegel's prints traveled the world; they were swift,
large, technologically up to date, and they were essential
for the growth of Antwerp's economy. Gibson's propos-
al to see The fall of Icarus as a world landscape, and Sil-
ver's idea of associating ships with industry, trade and
prosperity, combine very well. Both agriculture and
trade are shown in Bruegel's painting as indispensable
elements of the world as it is lived and worked in by hu-
man beings.
THE FARMER In the tumultuous years around 1970, the
Berlin students of art history knew for certain that the
great Bruegel had stood side by side with the oppressed
countered this politically correct view with a more
the sixteenth century show the peasant in two different
ways. In a well-ordered society, the farmer obediently
takes his responsibility for the cultivation of the land
and the production of food. This kind of farmer is har-
moniously integrated in the landscape, and is mostly to
be found in depictions of months or seasons. More fre-
47), Zwolle 1997, pp. 124-53.
3' K. Renger, "Bettler und Bauern bei Bruegel d. A.," Sitzungs-
berichte: Kunstgeschichtliche Gesel/schaft zu Berlin, N.F. 20 (1971-72),
pp. 9-i6.
 Bruegel's Fall of Icarus: Ovid or Solomon? I I

quently, the peasant is considered a member of the low-

est strata of society, where civilization and ethics are vir-
tually unknown. Peasants and beggars are the outcasts
of civil society; drunkenness, irascibility and insolence
govern their behavior. In genre scenes, peasants serve as
reprehensible examples for the virtuous bourgeois.
Raupp, Vandenbroeck, and others have elaborated on
this idea.32 Most publications are limited almost entirely
to the negative image of the peasant but the authors just
mentioned convincingly demonstrated that depictions
of farmers at work always have a positive content.33
Since the farmer who turns his back on Icarus is plow-
ing his land, his virtue is beyond doubt (fig. 4).34
Bruegel's farmer underwent a small but significant
metamorphosis in Kavaler's hands. He shared van
Gils's opinion that the plowman's unusual clothing is of
importance for the interpretation of the painting. It in-
dicates that this figure has a symbolic meaning. "The
image of the peasant dutifully ploughing was one of the
conventional signs of wilful submission to a larger social
DetaIl o
structure, of the world in order."35 Not just the farmer,
but everyone should take his place in a well-ordered
world, fulfilling in honor and decency the task that fell
to him. The protagonist of this painting symbolizes man
in general or, "the common man" as he was called in
Bruegel's day. When the world landscape does not just
assemble details from the visible world but demon- 4 Detail of fig. I
strates their cohesion, a symbol of man fulfilling his
duty can be an appropriate and essential element of it.
This is what the farmer does, and so do the men on the
ship.

32 H.-J. Raupp, Bauernsatiren: Entstehung und Entwicklung des farmers. Their articles can therefore be passed over here: S. Alpers,
bauerlichen Genres in der deutschen und niederlandischen Kunst, ca. I470-
"Realism as a comic mode: low-life painting seen through Bredero's
1570, Niederzier i986; P. Vandenbroeck, exhib. cat. Beeld van de an- eyes," Simiolus 8 (1975/76), pp. I15-44; H. Miedema, "Realism and
dere, vertoog over het zelf: over wilden en narren, boeren en bedelaars,comic mode: the peasant," Simiolus 9 (1977), pp. 205-19; and S. Alpers,
Antwerp 1987, pp. 63-113. "Taking pictures seriously: a reply to Hessel Miedema," Simiolus i0
33 In general Gibson agrees with Renger, but he proposes shifting (0978-79), pp. 46-50.
some of Bruegel's works from the negative to the positive side; W.S. 35 E.M. Kavaler, "Pieter Bruegel's Fall of Icarus and the noble
Gibson, "Bruegel and the peasants: a problem of interpretation," in peasant," Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten,
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: two studies (The Franklin D. Murphy Lectures Antwerpen, Antwerp i986, pp. 83-98, and E.M. Kavaler, Pieter
XI), Kansas City i99i, pp. 10-52. Raupp, op. cit. (note 32), applied the Bruegel: parables of order and enterprise. Cambridge 1999, pp. 57-76,
word satire to negative images of peasants. M.A. Sullivan, Bruegel's esp. p. 57. I.M. Veldman, "Images of Labor and Diligence in six-
peasants: art and audience in the northern Renaissance, Cambridge 1994,teenth-century Netherlandish prints: the work ethic rooted in civic
applies this concept to two of Bruegel's works which Gibson considers morality or Protestantism?", Simiolus 2I (1992), pp. 227-64, discusses a
positive images of peasant life. wide range of images showing diligent and dedicated labor as an essen-
34 The discussion between Alpers and Miedema on low-life genre tial contribution to human society.
referred to the "comic," worthless peasant exclusively, not to working

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 12 LYCKLE DE VRIES

ALLEGORY OR GENRE SCENE? Most art historians seem
to have been concerned with the question of how
Bruegel expressed his personal philosophy in his paint-
ings, rather than with the problem of genre classifica-
tion. If the farmer is a personification, as Kavaler sees
him, The fall of Icarus is an allegory. Gibson considered
the painting to be a landscape, and I have tried to syn-
thesize these two opinions. Earlier authors apparently
felt obliged to choose between the options of allegory or
genre, disregarding the importance of the landscape for
the painting's interpretation.
Stridbeck considered the plowman to be a personifi-
cation of the "Vita activa," and Icarus as an example of
what he calls its opposite, a life devoted to status and
pleasure; this makes the painting an allegory.36 Tolnay,
on the other hand, saw it as a genre scene, since Bruegel
divested the mythological subject of its heroic character
through the use of popular proverbs.37 Both authors
made the saying "Geen ploeg staat stil om een stervend
mens" ("No plow stands still for a dying man") the key
of their interpretation. A dead body lies under the
shrubbery at the far end of the plowed field, but this It
fig-
serves no purpose to label The fall of Icarus a history
ure is even more insignificant than the drowning Icarus,
piece and compare it to Bruegel's biblical scenes. These
who will not survive either.38
In his widely read handbook, Cuttler followed Tol-
nay's opinion that Icarus depicts a proverb, and thus is a
genre piece.39 Grimme is one of the many who believe
that Bruegel took the mythological story as a pretext for
his own purposes, but he thinks of plein-air painting
rather than philosophy: "the submersion of objects in
air and light."40 All the same, Icarus remained the gorized
focal as proverbs or as allegories is meaningless, since
point of Grimme's interpretation; his fall demonstrates
there is hardly any point of comparison with Icarus ei-
how man becomes alienated from his world when he
strays from the golden mean. This makes the painting
an allegory once more. Wyss, whose publications were
mentioned above, also saw Icarus as an allegory. He
opined that Bruegel saw the world with the melancholic
ambiguity that accompanied the "attitude towards vani-
ty of the early modern period."4' This supposedly made
him a Stoic, and a kindred spirit of Ortelius.
THE GENRES IN BRUEGEL S OEUVRE The fall of Icarus
does not compare easily with Bruegel's genre scenes, be
they of peasants or illustrations of proverbs. Most of his
peasants are not working, but feasting at a kermis or cel-
ebrating a village wedding. The country people in the
paintings with The labors of the months, and the unfin-
ished print series of The four seasons are busying them-
selves with great dedication, but not one of them looks
remotely like the farmer in Icarus. In his depictions of
proverbs, Bruegel seems to have found a fresh solution
for each new print or painting. A figure that could be
compared with the plowing farmer is not to be found in
this variegated subcategory of his genre scenes.
Apart from Icarus, Bruegel treated no mythological
themes. It was the etcher who added mythological
staffage to the prints that were made posthumously after
two of his drawings. Therefore, it is of no consequence
that Daedalus and his son are depicted in one of these.42
differ widely among themselves and, when they are lo-
cated out of doors the relationship between figures and
landscape is completely different from that in Icarus.
The series of prints of the Virtues and vices are allegories,
and as such they are history pieces. The question
whether Everyman, The battle about money, The fat
kitchen, The thin kitchen and other prints should be cate-
ther way.
The only comparison which is visually convincing is
to be found in the landscapes. Thanks to two great se-
ries, the prints of the Large landscapes and the paintings
with The labors of the months, the autonomous landscape
appears as one of Bruegel's main fields of activity. Apart

36 C.G. Stridbeck, Bruegelstudien: Untersuchungen zu den ikonolo- of a "kakkertje," a man defecating; see Allart, op. cit. (note 2).
gischen Problemen bei Pieter Bruegel d. A., sowie deren Beziehungen zum 39 C.D. Cuttler, Northern painting: from Pucelle to Bruegel / fonr-
niederl/ddischen Romanismus, Stockholm 1956, pp. 235-42. teenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, New York etc. 1973, pp. 47I-72.
37 C. de Tolnay and P. Bianconi, Das Gesamtwerk von Brueghel, 40 E.G. Grimme, Pieter Bruegel: Leben tnd Werk, Cologne 1977, p.
Lucerne, Freudenstadt & Vienna i967. 38: "...das Eintauchen der Dinge in Luft und Licht."
38 Traces of the preparatory drawing for this barely legible detail, 41 Wyss, "Der DoIch," cit. (note I9), p. 240: "...neuzeitliche Vani-
made visible with infrared reflectography, indicate the possibility that
tas-Gebdrde."
it was not meant to depict the head of a dead man but the bare bottom

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 Bruegel's Fall of Icarus: Ovid or Solomon? 13

5 Jan and Lucas van Doetecum _____

after Pieter Bruegel, Plaustrum
Belgicum, etching and engraving

PLAVZTKM-vt B LWiCV7A.

from these two cases, however, the landscape generally BETWEEN LANDSCAPE AND FIGURAL COMPOSITION A

serves as a background for genre pieces and biblical small number of Bruegel's compositions show one or a
scenes. The composition of The fall of Icarus bears a few figures placed in front of, rather than in a landscape,
strong resemblance to some of the slightly earlier Large which they dominate through their size. These paint-
landscapes, certainly the Plaustrum Belgicum (Netherlan- ings can be arranged in such a way that the figure gradu-
dish wagon; fig. 5), the Hieronymus in deserto (St Jeromeally becomes more important, whereas the landscape re-
in the wilderness), and the Magdalena poenitens (The treats. They are The good shepherd, The bad shepherd,
penitent Magdalen). In all of these, a line close to the di- Soldiers attacking peasants, The blind leading the blind
agonal divides the composition in a wide vista on sea (fig. 6), The misanthrope, and The peasant and the bird-
level, extending towards the horizon, and an elevated nester; some of these are known through copies only. Al-
foreground seen from close up. Trees at one edge of the though it is impossible to date the lost originals of weak
image soften the transition from foreground to back- copies, this seems to be their generally accepted chrono-
ground. The high horizon allows the integration of logical order, all of them being later than Icarus.43
many topographical details in the overall image. The The plowing farmer, who is the main figure in the
similarities are great, and the only reason for not calling
Icarian composition, dominates the world landscape be-
The fall of Icarus a world landscape, apart from the hind him, but his activity integrates him with its space.
painting's interpretational history, is the large figure of The furrows he makes strengthen the pictorial depth.
the farmer. The good shepherd and The bad shepherd are large, isolated

42 T. Vignau-Wilberg, "Pictor doctus: drawing and the theory of Bruegel derjungere: die Gemalde, 2 vols., Lingen i988-2000, vol. I, pp.
art around i6oo," in E. Fucikovi (ed.), exhib. cat. Rudolf II and 142-50, 209-I I. On the Soldiers attacking peasants see vol. 2, pp. 775-
Prague: the court and the city, Prague & London I 997, pp. 179-88. 86, 792-94.

43 On The good shepherd and The bad shepherd see K. Ertz, Pieter

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 14 LYCKLE DE VRIES

6 i e r T e l l

6 Pieter Br

figures in front of a vast landscape, with which they are

not as tightly connected as the plowman with his field.
One or a few large trees close off the space at one edge of
7 Pieter Bruegel, The misanthrope, 1568. Naples, Galleria Nazionale di
the image. The combination of this compositional ele-
Capodimonte
ment with the high horizon makes both Shepherd scenes
into simplified versions of the world landscape in Icarus.
The shepherds are much larger than the plowing
farmer, comparatively speaking, but they do not cut
through the horizon. The same characteristics are to be
found in the Soldiers attacking peasants: the high hori-
zon, the vast field, the tree on the edge of the image, and
the location of the figures in front of rather than within
the landscape.
The blind leading the blind, dated I 568, shows a row of
six men, the first of whom has fallen into the proverbial
ditch. The second is about to share his fate, whereas the
remaining four are slowly descending from the safe road
towards the water. The last two or three rise above the
horizon from their shoulders upward, which is why they
dominate the background landscape far more than ei-
ther shepherd does. Their prominent position strength-
ens the drama of the foremost vagrant's fall. Whereas
the blind men wander through a rustic landscape with a

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Bruegel's Fall of Icarus: Ovid or Solomon?
8 Pieter Bruegel,
The peasant and the bird-nester, 1568.
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
village church in the distance, the misanthrope stands in
front of a vast, flat pasture (fig. 7), not much different
from the background of The bad shepherd. The isolated
figure in his monk's habit rises above the horizon from
his shoulders upward. The circular shape of the paint-
ing eliminates much of the space around the figure,
which makes him dominate his background even more.
The man in the foreground of The peasant and the
bird-nester of the same year, 1568, is the first figure inthe
theblind illustrates a biblical passage as well as a com-
series to confront the spectator directly (fig. 8). This
strengthens his isolation from the background. Again,
the landscape is a large, flat meadow extending to the
horizon, blocked off at one side by a row of trees. The
monumentality of this figure does not just result from
his frontal position on the very edge of the painting, but
also from the fact that he rises above the horizon from
his waist upward. The last link with the tradition of the
world landscape was severed by this "modernization" of
44 P. Vinken and L. Schiuter, "Pieter Bruegels Nestrover en de
mens die de dood tegemoet treedt," in de Jong et al,. op. cit. (note 30),
PP. 54-79.
45 Matthew 15:14: "And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall
into the ditch." The Vulgate has them falling into a "fovea" or pit. The
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the background. This, however, does not rule out the
possibility that Bruegel's late composition descends in-
directly from his early world landscapes.
Kavaler renamed the farmer in Icarus the "common
man." Vinken interpreted the foreground figure in The
peasant and the bird-nester as man in general, unwittingly
heading for his fall.44 The misanthrope comments on
man's aversion to a perfidious world. The blind leading
mon proverb.45 Here, as well as in both Shepherd com-
positions, Bruegel did what he had done with his
Netherlandish proverbs, illustrating a text literally as if he
did not know its deeper meaning. "The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling,...
seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and
fleeth" (John IO: II-12). Jesus was likening himself to
the good shepherd, but the text also admonishes believ-
ers to make the right choice in critical situations. With
Dutch Statenvertaling of i637 has "gracht" (moat, ditch). A recent
Dutch translation has "kuil" (pit); see De Bybel uit de grondtekst ver-
taald: Willibrordvertaling 1978, 's-Hertogenbosch 1994. The common
Dutch proverb has "sloot" (ditch). Bruegel opted for a ditch, full of wa-
ter.
 LYCKLE DE VRIES

9 Jan and Lucas van Doetecum

after Pieter Bruegel,
Milites requiescentes,
__ :_ -. etching and engraving

- O - ILE S I0

the exception of the Soldiers attacking peasants, a pure
genre scene, all paintings discussed in this section com-
ment on the place of man in his world from a perspective
of practical, day-to-day ethics.
The similarity between The fall of Icarus and some of
the Large landscapes is not limited to their composi-
tion;46 there is an iconographical affinity as well, and I
believe that the series of landscapes with human figures,
assembled above, has its roots in the large landscape
prints. In these, as many aspects of the world as possible
are fused into a harmonious whole. The spectator seems
to stand where the wild nature of forests and mountains
borders on the cultivated land. In this frontier zone,
saintly hermits find enlightenment, the disciples of Em-
maus listen to their Lord, the Holy Family can rest at
last, the Milites requiescentes (Resting soldiers; fig. 9)scape, less than three-quarters of a century old, was
trouble no one, while a lone horseman leaves the dense
woods to descend into the inhabited world. Farmers and
merchants with their goods on their backs, in covered
wagons, or on the backs of mules, travel to market with-
out being threatened. When they pass a Pagus nemorosus
(village in the woods) a villager may raise his hand in
greeting. Tranquility, safety, labor, commerce, pros-
perity.
In Icarus, the rustic people from the printed world
landscapes-herdsmen, harvesters, bird-catchers, mar-
ket-farmers-were replaced by a single figure that occu-
pies a more prominent position: the plowman with his
horse. The sack of corn in the foreground, containing
seed or harvested corn, or both, indicates that more than
one aspect of farming is represented here. The traveling
merchants from the prints were replaced by an "expen-
sive delicate ship" in the middle ground and a number
of other vessels farther away. In this way the world land-
adapted to the times in which Bruegel lived. As I have
tried to demonstrate, this renewal was the beginning of a
development in which the balance between figure and

46 The series of Twelve large landscapes was made around I 555. to

The
it, and stems from the same period. Here I discuss these I 3 prints to-
Large Alpine landscape does not belong to the series but is very similar gether as a single group.

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 Bruegel's Fall of Icarus: Ovid or Solomon? 1 7

landscape would gradually shift, until the link with the en this to heart, and he also understands the meaning of
Large landscapes was almost completely lost. In the verse 4, whereas the shepherd ignores its good counsel:
process, the function of the central figure remained the "He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that
same: to convey a moral message, but the tone of his ad- regardeth the clouds shall not reap." The opening
dress became less and less optimistic. words of the chapter are difficult to understand: "Cast
thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after
CONCLUSION: SOLOMON, NOT OVID Most inter- many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for
preters treated Bruegel's Icarus as an isolated case. Gib- thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth." An
son was the first to define a group of works, the printedexcellent Dutch translation of the Bible solves the prob-
and painted world landscapes, in which this painting lem as follows: "Beleg je bezit in zeven of acht zaken"
could be included. The combination of his findings with ("Invest your property in seven or eight activities").48
the ideas of Kavaler and Silver changes Bruegel's paint- Whatever these words may mean, the fisherman as well
ing from a mythological scene with The fall ofIcarus into as the sailors on the merchant vessel are working dili-
a World landscape with the benefits ofagriculture and trade. gently, trying to earn a decent living from the water.
This unwieldy title is superfluous, since each and every Their occupations involve greater risks and uncertain-
world landscape demonstrates how working men take ties than the traditional farmer's work on the surface of
their place and fulfill their duty in human society and the earth.
God's creation. This well-balanced system is threatened In his Icarus Bruegel takes texts from the Bible literal-
when someone places his own interests over those of the ly, and presents them in forms of everyday life, with the
common weal. The perpetrator will not just harm oth- same kind of humor which characterizes many of his
ers, but eventually annihilate himself. The downfall ofother works. The fact that the fisherman and the shep-
Daedalus's son is a marginal note to Bruegel's harmo- herd in this painting, illustrating the words of the
nious world. Preacher, are to be found in Ovid's Metamorphoses as
The drowning Icarus was frequently treated as the well, is proof of the painter's erudition, but even more of
painting's central issue. Other details, such as the dead his wit.49 Some authors suggested that the shepherd is
body at the far end of the farmer's field, were also given looking in the direction where he had seen Icarus when
great weight. The question may be raised as to whether still flying. Such an indication of the passage of time
this is methodically sound, but the integration of con- seems more fitting for a modern comic book, I find, than
spicuous details into the interpretation of the whole re- for the art of the sixteenth century.
mains obligatory.47 I cannot claim to have an answer to The setting sun places the activities of men in a per-
all questions, but I think I can explain why the land- spective of time. The day is short, and life is short, but
scape is rendered in the light of the setting sun, the the plow will not stop "for a dying man," and the farmer
cause of "the submersion of objects in air and light." will not withhold his hand. The world continues turn-
The solution is to be found in Ecclesiastes, traditionally ing, and work must go on. The brevity of human life is
ascribed to Solomon, the eleventh chapter of which illustrated through the death of the youthful Icarus and
treats the ethics of labor. This seems to be an appropri-the corpse at the end of the farmer's field, but the cer-
ate subject for an image of an efficient and beautiful tainty of death is no reason for idleness or fatalism. The
world, organized in a sensible way. Preacher compares the cycle of life and death to the sea-
The sixth verse contains the advice to work hard all sonal work of the farmer. "To every thing there is a sea-
day long: "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the son, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A
evening withhold not thine hand." The farmer has tak- time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a

47 Wyss, "Der Dolch," cit., (note ij), attached great importance to
the farmer's girdle and dagger lying in the far left foreground.
48 Willibrordvertaling, cit. (note 45). The extensive marginal notes
to the "Statenvertaling" of i637 read these verses as an advice to give
alms generously in times of affluence, for in times of adversity one may
become dependent on the help of others.
49 A further reference to the Metamorphoses is the partridge sitting
on a branch and looking out over the water. The story about Icarus is
followed by a short passage on Perdix who was killed by Daedalus;
Ovid, op. cit. (note I I), VIII, 236-59.

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i8

time to pluck up that which is planted" (Ecclesiastes

3:1-2). Bruegel's image of an efficient, beautiful and
sensibly organized world does not deny the frailty of
man's life.
Before Bruegel did so, Holbein had already associated
a plowing farmer with the brevity of life. One of the rare
sixteenth-century images in which a setting sun is de-
picted, is a woodcut from his Dance of Death. It shows a
farmer who does not stop plowing at the end of the day.
Death does not scare him, but assists by whipping the
horses on (fig. Io).50 The label on the print refers to
Genesis 3:I9: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread." As far as I know, Bruegel's painting and Hol-

W w ~~~S twwWwwws-w--
bein's print have not been compared before, but they
seem to speak from the same mentality. The words that
banned Adam and Eve from Eden form no unbearable
burden, but a sober statement about the unalterable fate
of mankind. The references to Ecclesiastes and Genesis
do not turn Bruegel's Fall of Icarus into an allegory. It IOHn4obi h one, ESt0t21al odu

remains a world landscape, but comparison with the

Large landscapes makes it clear that this exceptional
composition has an unusual number of indicators which
serve to make its content more accessible. Its title could
therefore be: World landscape at sunset with a plowing
farmer, an idle shepherd, a hopefulfisherman, a merchant
vessel, a dead body, and the Fall oJfIcarus.
The poems by Auden and Williams made such a
strong impression, as they still do, that the question of
whether they interpreted the painting correctly seems
futile. Having written this essay, I still like their inter-
pretation better than my own. But art historians are no
poets, nor should they ever pretend to have comparable
tasks and responsibilities. The study of copies after lost
originals is no glamorous task, but it helps to disassoci-
ate poetic license from scholarly discipline. By following
the lead of a great poet, art historians were seduced into
working against the painting's composition, just as Au-
den had done. Moreover, they forgot to address a quin-
tessential problem: to which genre of paintings does this
composition belong? The first to answer that question
correctly was Walter Gibson.

GRONINGEN

50 H. Liltzelburger's woodcuts after designs by Hans Holbein the bein, London 1947, nr. xxxviii, and P. Hofer and A. Turner Montague
Younger were first published in Lyons in 1538. They went through (eds.),
i i The Dance n/'Death: Les sinalachres & historiees faces cle la n1(or,
editions up to 1562. See J.M. Clark, The Dance of Death by Hans Hol- n.p. 1974, fol. G iiir.

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