Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap

Artist Pieter Brueghel II (Flemish, 1564/1565-1637/1638)

Place of OriginFlanders

Dateabout 1600-1625

DimensionsH: 15 1/4 in. (38.7 cm); W: 22 1/4 in. (56.5 cm)

MediumOil on wood panel (transferred to masonite)

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1954.77

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 22

Collections

Paintings

Published References"Winter Landscape," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 1, no. 2, Summer 1957, pp. 4-5, repr.

Wittmann, Otto, "The Golden Age in the Netherlands," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 467, 468, repr. (b&W) fig. 9, p. 470.

Marlier, G., Pierre Brueghel le Jeune, Brussels, 1969, p. 242, no. 7.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 32-33, pl. 90.

Ertz, Klaus, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere (1564-1637/38: die Gemälde mit kritischem Ouevrekatalog, Lingen, Luca Verlag, 1998/2000, vol. II, no. E721, p. 581, 620, repr. p. 621.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Bauer, Linda and George, "The 'Winter landscape with skaters and bird trap' by Pieter Brueghel the Elder," ART BULLETIN, vol. 66, no. 1, March 1984, pp. 145-150.Label TextThe eldest son of pioneering Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (about 1525–1569), Pieter Brueghel the Younger often copied successful compositions by his father. This work is based on Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap by Bruegel the Elder now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and is one of at least 40 versions of the scene that Brueghel the Younger painted. It shows a frozen landscape from a high viewpoint, with peasants skating and playing a version of curling on the ice. The scene stretches back into the distance to meet the low horizon of the flat Dutch landscape and a far-of town. The simple bird trap of the title can be seen on the right side of the painting, beneath the towering bare tree that anchors the composition. Bird traps were metaphors for the snares of the devil (birds being traditional symbols of the soul), and so in addition to enjoying the engaging scene of winter activity, early 17th-century viewers of the painting could also have understood it as a caution to guard against earthly temptations.