How does the focus of Brueghel’s Landscape with the fall of Icarus compare to Ovid’s “The story of Daedalus and Icarus”?
According to Brueghel When Icarus fell It was spring
A farmer was ploughing His field The whole pageantry
Of the year was Awake tingling Near
The edge of the sea Concerned With itself
Sweating in the sun That melted The wings’ wax
Unsignificantly Off the coast There was
A splash quite unnoticed This was Icarus drowning
A.)Brueghel’s painting focuses on only Icarus and ignores Daedalus.
B.)Brueghel’s painting does not include Icarus at all.
C.)Brueghel’s painting focuses on Deadalus and Ignores Icarus.
D.)Brueghel’s painting focuses on the people of the coast rather than Icarus.
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
The correct answer is D) Brueghel’s painting focuses on the people of the coast rather than Icarus.
Explanation:
Brueghel’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” takes a distinctly different approach to the myth of Icarus compared to the original version told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Ovid’s narrative, the fall of Icarus is a central and dramatic event. After Daedalus, his father, warns him not to fly too high or too low, Icarus ignores the advice and flies too close to the sun, causing the wax in his wings to melt. The fall is tragic and powerful, with Icarus’s death being a pivotal moment in the story.
However, Brueghel’s painting shifts the focus away from Icarus and instead emphasizes the everyday life of the people around him. In the painting, the tragic fall of Icarus is only a small, almost unnoticed event in the larger landscape. Icarus is seen falling into the water in the corner of the painting, but the farmer in the foreground continues plowing his field, and the other figures in the painting are engaged in their daily activities. The “whole pageantry of the year” mentioned in the poem emphasizes that life goes on, regardless of individual tragedies, like that of Icarus.
The contrast between the monumental myth and the insignificance of Icarus’s fall in the context of the people’s busy, indifferent lives suggests that Brueghel is making a commentary on human indifference to the fates of others. While Ovid’s story gives Icarus’s fall great significance, Brueghel portrays it as a fleeting and largely unnoticed event, which points to the often unnoticed nature of personal disasters when they are set against the backdrop of the mundane world.
Thus, Brueghel’s work highlights the focus on the coastal people and their activities rather than on the individual tragedy of Icarus, making option D the correct answer.