Pieter Bruegel's Musee Des Beaux Art

Lives Must go On Even though we may be suffering, life goes on around us. Boats sail on calmly, people walk on dully, and dogs live their doggy lives. There is a similar theme between the poem, “Musee des Beaux Arts”, and the painting, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, it is: even while suffering life goes on. The poet of “Musee des Beaux Arts”, W.H. Auden, and the painter of “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, Pieter Bruegel, create the theme through tone. Both, the poem and painting, reflect on the story “Metamorphoses: Daedalus and Icarus”. The story is about and father and son who break out of jail through flying with homemade wings. Icarus did not listen to his father’s wise counsel, he flew too high to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell to the sea and died. …show more content…
The painting shows three men and a boat, enormous compared to the little, flailing legs of Icarus, who had just fallen to his death in the sea. One of the men, a fisher, continues to mind his own business and fish on, even though the little legs of Icarus are just before him. To continue, a ploughman and shepherd look on doing their jobs, neglecting the sound of a splash. The actions portrayed by the men give off a theme of moving on even though there is suffering a few feet away. Also, the title, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, represents that Icarus was not important because the painting is focusing on the landscape around Icarus, not just his fall and his suffering. With one glance, it is easy to not see the little legs of Icarus; the ploughman and shepherd are one of the first things someone would notice upon looking at the painting. The sizes of the other details compared to Icarus symbolize that his suffering goes