Unmistakably seen within ‘Metamorphosis’ by Ovid, is the clear standards of the male role, and the encouragement by the …show more content…
Perceptibly, the role of mankind is portrayed by peasants, anonymous symbols of humanity, who work with the land in a state of beneficial unity with nature. Moreover, strong vector lines all contradict the three worker’s attention from the drowning Icarus and prove their duties to be their main focus. In an instance, the ploughman is led by a repetitive duty of lines in the soil, which continually leads him through his work, whilst the Shepherd tends to his sheep. In saying this, there is a particular emphasis upon the ploughman, displaying a motif within the character. Aligning with this, is the red clothes he bears, which is particularly significant as it contrasts immensely with the primarily cooler colours of the image. By doing so, the artist has succeeded in grasping the viewer’s attention at this point, which then manages to lead the viewer’s eyes along the aforementioned vector lines. Symbolically, through the presence of the ploughman, Bruegel has indicatively reinterpreted the original ‘Metamorphosis’ to instead place the main paradigm of the story upon the worker’s life instead of Icarus’s. In doing so, a new storyline is portrayed in which a worker places his importance upon work rather than the well beings of others. Significantly, by doing so, the world in the artist’s life is portrayed as a place devoted upon work and the lack of acknowledgement towards anyone’s suffering but their own. Consequently, symbolism expressed within Bruegel’s work allows for the contemporary audience to display how few thematic ideas of the first century are still in practice today, acknowledging the development of humankind, wishing to control the natural order of all things on