c. 1565, 117*162cm
This is both sensuously overwhelming, the very feel of
the cold made visual, and emotionally expanding. The
mysterious space of the valley and its mountain, its lakes,
and its bare trees, its tiny inhabitants and its far-ranging
birds, all lies before our view. Like the gods themselves,
we look upon "the world". Every detail informs us of the
season as the bonfire blazes and the hounds slink wearily
home. The dazzle of white conceals the details but reveals
the wholeness, with only humanity at leisure to play, and only
the young at that. The grandeur of Brueghel's vision is one
that he is able to share with the viewer completely.
He takes us into an awareness of what
it means to live in the physical world, its mountains, valley,
and rivers, its snows, its birds, its animals, its trees.
No other painter has such a breadth of vision, so unencumbered
by the persona. We feel this is not what Brueghel
saw (and what we now see) but what actually and
objectively is. This is his great and unique contribution
to art.
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