Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

This painting is called Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and is an oil on canvas painted in 1560. In terms of actual accuracy to the myth, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus departs significantly from the traditional myth of Daedalus and Icarus in Metamorphoses. The painting does not focus on Icarus’s tragic fall or its emotional weight. Instead it reinterprets the myth by placing it in a broader context of human life and by minimizing its importance in the ordinary routines of the lives of others. Bruegel’s work offers a dialogue on human nature, fate, and the meaning of individual life compared to life in a larger idea. The myth focuses on the dynamic of Icarus and Daedalus and how the youthfulness and hubris of Icarus led to his downfall. Emotionally, there was more of a sense of tragedy in the myth than in the painting. The myth has a moral lesson about the consequences of reckless ambition. From the painting, Icarus is barely identifiable and the other characters are going about their life. Instead of having a moral lesson of recklessness, Brueguel's painting has a lesson along the lines of how life continues for others even when stopping for one.