Classroom use of the art print

THINGS TO LEARN

* Flanders is important as the origin of the artistic use of oil paints about 100 years before Bruegel was born. Oil paint is a combination of colored powder and various oils that dry out to become hard and cannot be dissolved by water. Before then, paint powder was usually mixed with plaster or with gummy material and water which, when dry, was easily dissolved. Oil paints were used first of all on wood panels, as in this picture, and later on specially surfaced canvas that enabled artists to paint larger pictures.

* Flemish artists in the 16th century regularly made copies of some of their earlier paintings when people were willing to pay for them. And it was quite usual for artists to copy and sell popular pictures originally painted by other artists. The reason for this is that before photography and color printing were invented, only one person or family could enjoy a painting. The only way another person could enjoy that particular painting was if an identical copy was made.

The problem with painting copies lay in the difficulty in being able to study the original. Original paintings were usually in an owner's home and not on public display. If a copyist could study a pencil drawing of the picture (or an engraving of it) he might get all the objects looking right but still not be sure of the colors. As a result, many copies of the scene shown here look very much like the original except for the colors, which vary quite considerably.

* This painting was made at a time when winters in Europe had become very much colder. These very cold winters and cool summers lasted until about 1850, and are called "The Little Ice Age." In fact, one of the coldest winters of this ice age happened in 1560, just a few years before Bruegel painted this picture. As a result of the climate change, harvests often failed and many people starved, especially during the winters when food supplies ran out and farm animals died.

Bruegel would certainly have been aware of the difficulties caused by the cold weather. And yet, he was also interested in the lives of peasant people and how they were able to enjoy themselves in spite of their hard lives.

* Pieter Bruegel preferred to follow in the footsteps of earlier Flemish and Dutch artists rather than imitating the art of the Italian Renaissance. To understand his art better, therefore, students should look at more of Bruegel's pictures and also look at the paintings of earlier artists such as Hieronymous Bosch. Numbers of examples can be found on the World Wide Web under these artists' names.

THINGS TO DO

* Today we often do not think highly of artists who copy other artist's pictures. And yet, copying is a very good way to learn about art and to discover the ways in which artists have been successful. Moreover, copying is not an easy task.

A school application of copying from this painting might be to make drawings of the people on the frozen river and then rearrange them into an original drawing or painting of a frozen pond or river near where they live.

An alternative might be to make a drawing of this painting and try to paint it with colors that exactly match those in the original picture.

* When trees lose their leaves in the winter, students can see more clearly how trees are formed. During the summer, the covering of leaves make the branches almost invisible.

The problem for students when drawing trees is that they usually think only of the branches that grow out sideways from the trunk. And yet trees are three-dimensional: they have depth as well as height and width. As a result, student work will improve if they try drawing trees that show branches growing toward them and--to a lesser extent--away from them.

Careful observation of the trees in this painting may provide some help in developing student drawing skills.

* This painting offers a lesson on the effects of snow on other colors that may help students with their own work. The whiteness of snow-covered objects results in the colors that can be seen looking very much darker than they would if the scene were filled with normal colors instead of white. As a result, the people in this painting almost become silhouettes against the whitishness of the icy river. The same effect is present for the walls of buildings and the trunks of trees.

Students may also notice that the windows appear darker than the house walls. This is because daylight shines through the windows into the houses and is not reflected out again, so the windows show as dark spaces.

In an effort to translate this knowledge into practice, students may paint their own picture of a winter scene.

BUILDING A VISUALS FILE

This painting may be used to illustrate various art-teaching needs. Potentially useful picture-file categories include: "Frozen Waterways"; "Winter Sports"; "Flemish Painters: Pieter Bruegel the Elder"; "Country Landscapes"; "European Art: 16th Century"; and "Trees: Wintertime."