Amy Gong MG3203 Section 38 The Harvesters Experience Leon Battista Alberti defines the Italian Renaissance painting

masterpiece by the three elements of circumscription, composition and light. Though Pieter Bruegel lived concurrently with the Italian Renaissance, his works are fundamentally different from works such as those of Raphael because Bruegel seeks to create a different sensory experience with his art. Bruegel employs a different method from Albertis model for Italian Renaissance pai ntings in order to create three dimensions and depth different. Rather than follow Albertis principle of circumscription, the lines of Bruegels The Harvesters are better analyzed in a grid based off of the rule of thirds. In his writings, Alberti sketches examples of circumscription, where there lines of the painting converge upon a singular vanishing point, and other elements in the art do not interfere with this horizon to the point that it is unrecognizable. Raphael follows this circumscription model: in his Madonna and Child paintings in particular Madonna of the Goldfinch the vanishing point is clearly defined somewhere directly behind the human subjects. The human subjects very obviously capture the attention of the eye, and we focus our attention primarily on the detailing of Madonna, Jesus and John the Baptist. Nature surrounds the figures, but neither interacts nor interferes with the figures. Rather, the details of nature the trees, the large boulder, and the clouds all serve to frame the human subjects. In contrast, while Bruegels The Harvesters has a horizon, there is not a definite vanishing point. The curvature of the terraced hilltop interrupts the valley below, and the part of the hill that remains in the foreground effectively interferes with our interpolation of a continued horizon. By breaking

The Harvesters down by the rule of thirds, we can see that essentially 4 of 9 blocks occur in the background of the painting (the left-most and center blocks in the first and second row of the grid). Whereas the background of Madonna of the Goldfinch aids in drawing attention to the human figures of that comprise of the foreground, the grid-like breakdown of The Harvesters does not draw the eye to any particular area of the painting. In fact, even though the 4 blocks in the upper left corner comprise of the background of The Harvesters, it is arguable that this section of the work merits the most detail to attention. Compositionally, Bruegel took more care in the fine details of nature than in his human subjects. The trees dotting the valley are painted with painstaking detail. Tiny dots of white, yellow and red highlight and accent the trees, lending them a sharper focus even though they appear smaller and in the background of the painting. In contrast, Bruegel has not treated even the large tree in the foreground of the painting as carefully as he did the trees in the background. The leaves of the tree do not take on an entirely realistic shape and the shading of the leaves lack the vibrant realism that the trees in the background hold; to an extent, these larger leaves appear to have been more haphazardly slapped onto the canvas. In contrast, Raphaels Madonna depicts nature in a less detailed manner. Nature is without a doubt the background of the art, and serves to complement the scene depicted without detracting any attention from the human subject. As such, all of the naturally occurring objects trees, mountains and rocks are painted with a soft, blurred quality. Looking at the human figures, it is quite apparent that Bruegel does not place much emphasis on his human subjects, because they, as individuals, are not an integral to the historia he seeks to depict. The Harvesters is a depiction of Dutch peasant life. The individual peasant is of no importance to the scene; rather, it is how the peasants interact

with each other as a collective group working in the wheat fields that tells Bruegels story. Up close, none of the peasants are painted with much detail to the physical details of their bodies. Exposed flesh looks very two dimensional and flat, and each face is purposely painted in a ruddy, ugly manner the way peasants were undeniably viewed as in the 16th century. The woman in blue on the far right of the painting is depicted with an oversized nose that seems too large for her face. Each individuals body has a certain soft look to it not a sensual softness that Raphael and other Italian Renaissance painters depict but a softness that suggests a life of that consists of little more than toiling, eating and drinking; they have bodies that are not even worth depicting in detail. Only one woman, with her back to the viewer, seems to have the sensual body type remotely reminiscent of a Renaissance womans body. In contrast, the human figures in Raphaels Madonna are painted with greater detail than any other part of the painting. The historia that is being depicted in these paintings are of religious figures and events, so it follows that the religious human subjects would be painted with the most detail. All of the exposed flesh is painting using light and shadows to give the skin a luminescent glow. The facial expressions of Madonna and baby Jesus are painted in fine detail, evoking feelings of maternal love and holy wisdom. The bodies are carefully arranged to create a scene of intimacy, and Jesus assumes the contrapposto pose that is often depicted in Italian Renaissance. The Harvesters is ultimately a depiction of everyday peasant life in the 16th century Netherlands. A snapshot of daily life, it was more important for Pieter Bruegel to capture the essence of life and location as a whole. Individuals dont matter, and consequently the nature depicted in The Harvesters receives more details. In doing so, Bruegel creates a piece

that forces the viewer to take in the scene as a whole to gain an understanding of the life and times Bruegel aimed to depict. Bruegel challenges the viewer not to focus on any particular aspect of the painting by challenging the viewer not to focus on any particular element of The Harvesters in particular.