"The Fall of Icarus" - anthem of indifference

Peter Bruegel the Elder is considered a genre painter. Indeed, his paintings depict scenes from the life of ordinary peasants and townspeople who dine, skate, dance at weddings, plow the land. But periodically in such simple subjects he introduces biblical motifs or legends. The view of a brilliant artist on the subject is unexpected and paradoxical. This is the picture of Bruegel's The Fall of Icarus.

The Crime of Daedalus

Daedalus was a talented Athenian artisan, descendant of the first mythical king of Athens. Its inhabitants of Hellas knew and respected for ingenuity and skill. But one day he envied his nephew and pupil. It seemed to Daedalus that the pupil would surpass him in mastery, that the young man was destined to become larger than a simple successful artisan: his nephew descended inspiration when he saw the movements and jaws of the snake and wanted to create a saw. In Daedalus' soul everything turned from envy, and he threw the pupil into the sea from the mound of the Acropolis. But the goddess Athena prevented the complete death of the young man, turning him into a partridge (its viewer pictures "The Fall of Icarus" will see on the canvas).

The escape

However, the gods punished Daedalus, having sent to the island of Crete, where his son Icarus was born. Daedalus planned to escape with his son from Crete and created wings of feathers and wax. He accurately explained to his son that it was necessary to fly and not high, and not low. But Icarus, carried away by freedom of flight, soared too high. Wax of wings melted. As a result, Icarus fell into the sea, and he drowned. His body carried the current to the island, where he was found by Hercules and betrayed to the ground. Thus, the crime of Daedalus against the nephew was cruelly avenged.

Peaceful life

In the central part of the composition is depicted a plowman whose faces the viewer does not see. This is a typical image for Brueghel. The peasant, whom no one dared to put in the center of the composition, is working quietly. By the way, this is a secondary character, but he attracts attention. The day is clear and beautiful. The plowman is full of his thoughts about sowing, about how the shoots will go, and whether the harvest will be good. The figure of the peasant is quite proportional, she plays a subordinate role, as was the case in earlier pictures of Brueghel. So, the peasant is calm and does not notice anything around him. No movement, no drop Ikar plowman does not worry.

Shepherd and ships

However, the shepherd, who watches the herd of sheep on the edge of the cliff, looks at the sky with astonishment. For there he saw an unprecedented one. Perhaps he did not even understand what it was. And high in the sky in terror, Daedalus floated. He saw that the son, forgetting his instructions, soared to the sun and had already fallen into the sea. In the sea the shepherd does not look. And next to it there is a ship. On it, too, everything is quiet. No one notices the sinking and does not rush to his aid. From Icarus, if you look closely, there is only a foot left on the surface. More than this and a handful of feathers from the wings nothing remained. But if anyone sees what's going on, it's a gray partridge, sitting on a bush, on a cliff above a calm fisherman, who is also keen on his business and does not notice the sinking. The close interest of partridge to what is happening is understandable: it is completely avenged. The retribution has come to pass. This is the plot of the picture "The Fall of Icarus".

Landscape

All the action takes place against the backdrop of a peaceful peaceful landscape, beloved by Brueghel. The brownish in the foreground of the earth's tone and the greenish trees on the second, the blue smoothness of the sea, bathed in the unsharp light of the sun, is a typical Dutch landscape. And the whole picture is illuminated by his calm light, giving life to all living things.

If Daedalus was guilty, then he must be punished, and not a young man, whose deaths were indifferent to all the characters in the picture. Indifference and indifference are the main characters, which Bruegel ("The Fall of Icarus") created. This has found continuation in our lives: a person passes by someone's trouble with an empty look and meaningless with standard words.