Landscape With Icarus

The myth of “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” starts with Icarus’s father, Daedalus, making them wings to fly out of the labyrinth they were imprisoned in. The wings were fragile and Daedalus told Icarus not to fly too high or the wings would melt. Icarus ignored his father and flew too close to the sun. Consequently His wings melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned. This myth is important enough that Pieter Brueghel depicted a scene, and William Carlos William wrote a poem about it, because it’s trying to send a message that one should always listen and pay attention to one’s surroundings, instead of being caught up in oneself. The painting really shows how if one isn’t aware of one’s surroundings then things that are important, such as Icarus drowning, can go unnoticed.
The images in the painting such as the man ploughing, the bright city, and the shining ocean attract one’s mind off the main topic, which is Icarus drowning. The man ploughing in the field draws the most attention from one’s focus because of the pigmented colors that associate with the portion of the painting. While there are many light parts in the “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” there are also dark ones. The most atramentous detail of this painting is where Icarus has fallen into the ocean and is drowning. This most likely went unnoticed because of the fisherman’s head being bright red, and distracting one from the main focus which is Icarus drowning. The main idea may be “the fall of Icarus”, but the mood is set by the scenery and images drawing one’s eye away from the main idea, making it look like it’s a peaceful ordinary day with no interruptions. The field worker is carrying on with his everyday tasks as well as the fisherman, which conveys one to think nothing is wrong and to carry