#The Hay Harvest by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

[cjjasp]

#FineArtFriday: The Hay Harvest by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565 (reprise)

Artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/1530–1569) Title: The Hay Harvest Genre: genre art Date: 1565 Medium: oil on panel Dimensions: Height: 117 cm (46 in) Width: 161 cm (63.3 in) According to the Web Gallery of Art, Haymaking, also known as The Hay Harvest, belongs to the Series of the Months. All the other panels in this series are dated 1565. July and August are the months when most summer…

[artsandculture]

The Hunters in the Snow (1565) 🎨 Pieter Bruegel the Elder 🏛️ Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien 📍 Vienna, Austria

In the late 16th century, the Antwerp banker Niclaes Jongelinck owned one of the most important painting collections in the Netherlands. He commissioned Bruegel to create a series of six seasonal paintings, the last of which is shown here. The series also included: Gloomy Day (Early Spring; KHM, GG 1837), Spring (now lost); Hay-Harvest (Early Summer; Nelahozeves Castle, Czech Republic, Lobkowitz Collection); The Harvesters (Late Summer; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art); Return of the Herd (Autumn; KHM, GG 1018). For the composition of this series, Bruegel, who today is regarded as the most progressive landscape painter of the 16th century, followed an older tradition that divided the year, beginning on 1 March, into six unequally long seasons. What all the compositions have in common is the so-called balcony motif, i.e., the depiction of a hill in the foreground from which an overall view of the landscape unfolds. On top of the hill a group of hunters accompanied by a pack of dogs is seen, making their way back to the village below. Their catch is poor: a single fox dangling from the spear the hunter on the left carries on his shoulder. To the hunter’s left, Bruegel added a motif that had been used forquire some time in book illumination for depicting the month of December: the preparations for singeing a pig over an open fire outside a building. The damaged sign hanging above them reveals the name of the inn: “dit is inden Hert”, meaning “To the Deer” – a well-aimed passing shot. Entertaining details, such as the people ice-skating on the frozen lakes, have contributed to the painting’s enormous popularity. However, it does not owe its significance in art history to its details but rather to the overall impression conveyed by the coloration and composition. With virtuosity and consistency Bruegel evokes the impression of cold: white, blue-green and brown are the dominant colours. The precise silhouette of the trees, the frozen mill-wheel at the lower right and the icy surface of the snow revealed by the hunters’ footprints blend together to convey the fundamental characteristics of winter. The scene is an invented, universally formulated landscape: the combination of a chain of Alpine mountains with Flemish architecture renders pointless any search for reality.

[kirbykendrick]

“The Harvesters" (1565) portrays the arduous work of gathering the hay and the peasants’ joy of the well-earned picnic. Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s use of the golden yellow color of the hay fields is delightful to our senses.

[longlivebatart]

Bruegel the Elder's The Harvesters

Welcome to Long Live Bat Art, the podcast for art lovers who don’t see art as much as they want to. My name is Sydney and thank you for taking this slow tour through an art gallery with a casual art lover. Today, I’ll be talking about The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. I hope you enjoy. 

Since I already covered Pieter Bruegel the Elder, we can go right on into the painting- The Harvesters.

The painting depicts workers cutting down hay and bundling it. The hay takes up the majority of the image, mostly the midground. The hay was grown on a slope, the people are generally working or sitting on a raised part. There are seventeen people in the painting that are easily seen, and they’re all sitting on the raised part of the slope in the foreground. There are four a ways into the background and several more in the far background. Two of the seventeen that are easily seen are knelt a little ways away from a tree, picking up what looks like apples from the ground. There’s a ladder flat on the ground behind them with a wooden bucket near it. Three are collecting cut hay and bundling it into sheaves. Another person is using a scythe to cut more hay.

The hay yet to be bundled is in three columns. Each pile looks approximately the same size. There are six pairs of sheaves fully shown, leaned against one another like a teepee. The side of a seventh is barely shown- just the base and about halfway up the slope. 

Next to the partially-shown pair of bundled hay, nine people are clustered at the base of a tree, in various stages of relaxation. One is sleeping, and the others are eating and drinking. They’re sitting on bundled hay that is yet to be leaned together and bundled again. 

To the left of the painting, there are three figures working. One is using a scythe, one is using a long stick to maybe separate the cut hay into those equal piles, and one is carrying a jug of what’s probably water to the workers through a corridor cut into the hay. Next to the scythe-wielder is a tall handled clay jug, which I’m assuming is holding more water. 

Further down the cleared corridor are three people walking into the distance. Two are carrying clearly-shown hay bundles, the third might be doing the same but the hay isn’t showing. To the left of the trio are two birds flying over the yet-to-be-cut hay. 

Beyond the birds is a single figure, though only the top half can be seen over the hay. They must be another worker, but I can’t really tell.  

That ends with a hill, and on the other side is a church painted in blue tones. The pointed roof is almost green, like oxidized copper. It has a bell tower and a smaller pointed part that has a circular window near the top. You can barely see the rest of the building. The sky is flat gray.

The midground of the majority of the image is a lower area of green grass and plenty of trees. Beyond that is even more hay, stretching into the distance. In the greener area, there’s what looks like a campus quad or another clear grassy area with paths cut through it from the trips of hundreds of pairs of feet. There are people milling there, and they seem to be playing some kind of game- you can see a few figures with their arms outstretched and running towards each other. There’s a small group that seems to be made of spectators. There’s a building near them, whether it’s a large house or a public gathering place I’m not sure. To the left of that small scene is a truck coming up the road, carrying a huge block of hay. It’s being pulled by a pair of horses, one brown and one darker in color, maybe black. Behind the truck is a curved road that recedes into the distance and seems to lead to another building. It could be another church. It has the same style as the closer one- a pointed tower with a lower A-frame part. In the far distance you can see a body of water, most likely the coastline. There are boats on it headed towards the land that’s in the far distance, which is colored much lighter than the rest of the land. 

Now for my thoughts. 

I like the hay and foliage. Every stalk and leaf are individuals of the same whole. Bruegel didn’t skimp and paint a large area a single color, highlight it, and then call it a day. He took his time painting each part. The bushes are more dense, so he might have used multiple shades of green on a fan brush and dabbed. But the hay stalks are so detailed. You can see the bushy tops of every single one in the front. And the people playing the game in the background, you can see the paths between them. You can tell some are spectators. In the background you can see ships. Even when the painting recedes into the distance there’s nuance to the color.

I also love the subject of this painting. And not just because I got to say one of my favorite words- scythe. I love this painting because you can see people relaxing. One is even asleep next to the ongoing picnic. As I said about Twelfth Night, life wasn’t all misery and difficulty. People took breaks. People had picnics. People took naps. Life wasn’t constant break-breaking work. Yes, others are working, and working hard, but it looks like they’re working in shifts. People have always cooperated to make things easier for others. Because being overworked helps no one. Burnt out and overworked people make mistakes. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution- take breaks. Resting. Relaxing. People in the 1600s got that, and it seems to be one of the things humans forgot. We’re always rushing, always striving for the next task. It’s good to slow down. 

So I’m going to challenge you. Set a timer for ten minutes. Ten minutes, just for you. Sit down with your favorite beverage and drink it slowly. Do nothing else. Don’t check social media, don’t plan what you’re going to do tomorrow, don’t worry about what you won’t do today. Just ten minutes to sit with yourself. I’m not going to lie to you- it’ll be hard at first. You’ll automatically want to reach for your phone. Suppress that urge. Sit and listen to your thoughts. And, if you’re lucky, your thoughts will start to slow down. And you’ll like it. Hopefully, you’ll want to take those ten minutes more often. Because everyone could use some ‘nothing’ in their life. That ‘nothing’ is everything.

If you liked this episode of Long Live Bat Art, please consider telling a friend and reviewing to help the podcast grow. A link to the transcript of this episode is available in the show notes below. And you can follow me on Twitter at Long Live Bat Art and tumblr at tumblr dot com forward slash Long Live Bat Art. That’s Long Live B-A-T Art. Thank you for listening to this episode, and I will see you in two weeks.

[geritsel]

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Hay Harvest

[verweilen]

The Hay Harvest, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565)

[beautiful-belgium]

Pieter Bruegel the Elder in High Resolution

Here is a list with links to faithful and high resolution images of the 39 paintings that are confidently attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder (and 3 others that are disputed). The list closely follows the catalogue of paintings in Pieter Bruegel: The Complete Works. 

- Parable of the Sower a.k.a. River Landscape with a Sower, 1557, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego - Twelve Proverbs, 1558, Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp - Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin - The Battle between Carnival and Lent, 1559, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - Children’s Games, 1560, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Suicide of Saul in the Battle on Gilboa Mountain, 1562, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1562, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels - The Triumph of Death, 1562-1563, Prado Museum, Madrid - Dulle Griet (Dull Gret/Mad Meg), 1563, Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp - Two Chained Monkeys a.k.a. Two Fettered Apes, 1562, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin - Landscape with the Flight into Egypt, 1563, National Gallery, London - The Tower of Babel, 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Adoration of the Kings in the Snow, 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Procession to Calvary (Christ Carrying the Cross), 1564, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Death of the Virgin (Dormition of the Virgin), c. 1564, Upton House, Warwickshire - The Adoration of the Kings, 1564, National Gallery, London - The Gloomy Day (February/March), 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Tower of Babel, Rotterdam version, c. 1565, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam - The Hay Harvest (June/July), 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Harvesters (August/September), 1565, The MET, New York City - The Return of the Herd (Autumn; also: October/November), 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Hunters in the Snow (Winter; also: December/January, or The Return of the Hunters, 1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - Winter Landscape with Skaters and Birds Trap, 1565, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels - Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, 1565, National Gallery, London - The Wedding Dance, 1566, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit - The Census at Bethlehem, 1566, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels - The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, 1566, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest - Massacre of the Innocents, 1565-1567, Royal Collection, London - The Conversion of Saul, 1567, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Land of Cockaigne, 1567, Alte Pinakothek, Munich -  The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day, 1566-1567, Prado Museum, Madrid* - Peasant Wedding, 1568, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - Peasant Dance, 1568, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Peasant and the Nest Robber a.k.a. The Birdnester/The Nest Thief, 1568, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna - The Misanthrope, 1568, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples - The Parable of the Blind (also: The Blind Leading the Blind), 1568, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples - The Cripples (also: The Beggars), 1568, Louvre, Paris - The Magpie and the Gallows, 1568, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt - Portrait of an Old Woman (also: The Head of an Old Peasant Woman), c. 1563/64 or 1568, Alte Pinakothek, Munich - The Three Soldiers, 1568, The Frick Collection, New York City - Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple, after 1569, National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen* - Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, unknown date, considered to be a copy of Bruegel’s lost original painting, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels*

* Denotes paintings with disputed attributions. Sources: - Pieter Bruegel: The Complete Works - Jürgen Müller and Thomas Schauerte - Inside Bruegel - Wikicommons - Google Arts and Culture - Museo del Prado - National Gallery  - About Time Magazine (The Beggars) - The Guardian (The Death of the Virgin) This post was inspired by an incredible book on Pieter Bruegel the Elder that I received for Christmas called Pieter Bruegel: The Complete Works (published by Taschen).

[projectsideaz]

the art of summer over the centuries.

The cycle of the seasons is the source of many myths and legends and has inspired artists around the world. Studying the seasons in art means understanding how artists have translated their reality into images over time. When the summer months arrive, we enjoy pleasant temperatures and longer days. We appreciate the ease of living that is so typical of the summer season. Whether allegorical or pragmatic, idealized or realistic, summer has been represented in art for thousands of years.

Artsper invites you to trace the many paths that summer has inspired artists from ancient times to the present day.

The Ancient World: The Mighty Goddess Demetriz

In ancient times, the worship of the gods demanded great attention. The construction of statues was a way of paying homage to deities who could influence the daily lives of mortals. This is why the seasons are often personified in ancient art.

The goddess Demeter in Greek art (Ceres in Roman art) is regarded as the divine being who represents summer. In fact, as the daughter of Cronus, she is said to have taught men how to sow and cultivate wheat. She is therefore revered as the goddess of agriculture and fertility, capable of ensuring beautiful and productive summer harvests. This is an absolutely essential role, which explains the importance of the worship of this goddess.

If you have ever been to the British Museum, you may have been lucky enough to see Demeter of Knidos, one of the most famous statues of the Greek period. In natural size (she is almost 1.5m high!), the goddess is enthroned as if she were sitting in the pantheon of the gods. This impressive sculpture from 350 BC was discovered by an English archaeologist in the port of Cnidus - in fact Turkey - and is believed to have been part of a sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Demeter.

The Middle Ages: beautiful handwritten calendars

As in ancient art, it is completely impossible to combine medieval art into a single work. However, if it were chosen it would probably be a book of hours, that is, a prayer manuscript used by the faithful during the liturgical hours of the day.

One of the most famous copies is entitled "The Duke of Berry's Richest Hours". It was written in the early 15th century and commissioned by... You guessed it, the Duke of Berry! An exceptional patron of the arts, he particularly liked manuscripts, and Les Très Riches Heures are particularly famous for their calendar. Produced with extraordinary attention to detail and using impressive materials and techniques, these illuminations represent each month of the year and its attributes. Each page features an emblematic landscape, usually a famous castle, as well as activities representative of the period.

The month of June, under the sign of the twins and the crab, shows us both the harvest and the Palace of the Kings of France (you can recognize it, it is now the Palace of Justice!) In July, we observe the harvest and the shearing of the sheep in front of Poitiers Castle. In August, the Château d'Étampes dominates the farmers who work in the fields and bathe in the river, and the nobles who hunt falcons. Crowned by an attic window that illustrates its astrological identity, each month of the Très Riches Heures is a masterpiece in itself. It is also a very expressive representation of summer in medieval French culture.

The Renaissance: a wealth of representations

Perhaps the most emblematic work of the Renaissance during the summer is that of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. This Milanese painter, known throughout the world for his atypical "composite portraits", which are composed of different elements on a theme, was already famous in his time. He worked mainly in the Habsburgs' court.

One of the characteristic series of his work is the Four Seasons. Each one of them is represented by a human figure in profile. Thus, the figure of The Summer, painted in 1563, is composed of several fruits and vegetables: it has a peach per cheek, a piece of pea and a delicate ear of wheat per eyebrow! Dressed in a straw suit woven and adorned with an artichoke, this summer gentleman testifies to the interest in the curiosities of the great European courts of the Renaissance. Another Renaissance tradition, this time typical of northern countries, is the setting of the genre. Flemish and Dutch painters, very famous for their landscapes, transformed scenes from the daily life of their regions into paintings. Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, for example, created a series based on the four seasons, which is one of the most famous in 16th century art. It has its origins in medieval calendars, such as the Duke of Berry's Très Riches Heures. Thus, for Bruegel, summer is represented by the hay harvest (June and July) and the harvest (August and September).

Finally, we must not forget the characteristic principle of the Italian Renaissance: the return to the traditions and values of antiquity. Thus, in an oil on canvas by the famous Venetian artist Tintoretto, we find an allegory of summer under the figure of Ceres. The goddess of agriculture is represented here in the tradition of Mannerism, in an elegant setting reminiscent of the summer months.

The 18th century: antiquity in contemporary taste

In the 18th century, the rules of the Academy of Fine Arts prevailed as absolute principles in defining a work of art and the fine arts themselves. In continuity with the Renaissance, academic art celebrates the traditions of ancient art. For example, the perfect body and idealized nudity are perceived as signs of moral purity.

The theme of the four seasons was very popular in the art of the time, especially through the allegories of nature. In fact, it was in 1723 that Antonio Vivaldi composed his famous violin concertos as a tribute to this cycle of nature! At the same time, Nicolas Fouquay's factory in Rouen, France, produced four busts of earthenware representing the four seasons in the form of Roman gods. The Ceres-shaped summer bust wears a crown of peaks, but unlike the allegorical images of the Renaissance, it reflects the spirit of its time. In fact, its turban and long weave, as well as the head that holds its carelessly draped clothes over its shoulders, recall the oriental dress code that was in vogue at court at the time.

Summer, a timeless theme in art history!

Goddesses of the golden wheat, harvesters and falconers, composite portraits, swimming pools in St. Tropez... in art history, summer appears in all its forms. Like the seasons, the representations of summer in art are cyclical over the centuries. The works use codes that are repeated and followed according to the periods... ...but are never identical! Today, when our daily life is less dependent on the seasons than it used to be, we still welcome the warm months with open arms, and artists continue to be inspired by them. And what about you? How would you represent summer in your own artistic language?

[themuseumwithoutwalls]

MWW Artwork of the Day (9/1/19) Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, c. 1525-1569) The Seasons: Summer (c. 1565) Engraving (first state of two), 22.5 x 28.3 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund)

Conceived of as one of a four-part series on the seasons, this image represents the activities traditionally associated with the summer months: fruit picking for June, hay harvesting for July, and corn harvesting for August. It complements the engraving of Spring (1570), the only other in the series to have been completed after Bruegel's design. Pieter van der Heyden did the engraving after Bruegel's drawing, in which figures were rendered left-handed so as to be right-handed in the reversed print image. Depictions of the seasons were common in Northern European manuscripts, paintings, and prints. Bruegel used his sharp eye for humorous detail and his pitch-perfect characterization to portray summer as a time of thirst-inducing, if somewhat disorganized, labor. The daring motif of having the foot of the enthusiastic drinker in the foreground overlap the lower border of the image serves to underscore the unbridled nature of his behavior. The actions of these peasant workers have the tendency, the image seems to suggest, to overstep the boundaries of proper habits or good taste. In the border below, the central portion of the inscription reads "Summer, image of youth," succinctly associating the progression of the seasons with the ages of man. (from the MMA catalog)

[cjjasp]

#FineArtFriday: The Hay Harvest by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565

#FineArtFriday: The Hay Harvest by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565

Artist: Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1526/1530–1569) Title: The Hay Harvest Genre: genre art Date: 1565 Medium: oil on panel Dimensions: Height: 117 cm (46 in) Width: 161 cm (63.3 in) According to the Web Gallery of Art, Haymaking, also known as The Hay Harvest, belongs to the Series of the Months. All the other panels in this series are dated 1565. July and August are the months when most summer…

[kirbykendrick]

The Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder would put on disguises so he could participate in the life of the peasants…capturing their field labor and rollicking celebrations in his paintings.

"The Harvesters" (1565) portrays the arduous work of gathering the hay and the peasants’ joy of the well-earned picnic. Bruegel’s use of the golden yellow color of the hay fields is delightful to our senses.

[beautiful-belgium]

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Hay Harvest (1565)

[kirbykendrick]

"The Harvesters" (1565) portrays the arduous work of gathering the hay and the peasants’ joy of the well-earned picnic.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s use of the golden yellow color of the hay fields is delightful to our senses.

[kirbykendrick]

“The Harvesters” (1565), Pieter Bruegel the Elder

This famous painting portrays the arduous work of gathering the hay and the peasants’ joy of the well-earned picnic. Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s use of the golden yellow color of the hay fields is delightful to our senses.

[kirbykendrick]

Did you know? The Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder would put on disguises so he could participate in the life of the peasants… capturing their field labor and rollicking celebrations in his paintings.

"The Harvesters" (1565) portrays the arduous work of gathering the hay and the peasants’ joy of the well-earned picnic. Bruegel’s use of the golden yellow color of the hay fields is delightful to our senses.