Pieter Brueghel the Elder: Hunters in the Snow (1565)

(Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria)

A well-known painting from the Flemish master Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569). This painting is from a series of six with each depicting a different time of the year - this one is winter. A group of hunters have returned from their unsuccessfull hunt on the left (unsuccessfull because the hunters and the dogs look downtrodden and miserable), while in the background people are skating on the frozen waters. The setting of the whole scene is a mixture of Dutch-Flemish building, mountains from the Alps and a German castle. The tavern on the left is called 'Dit is inden Hert' ('this is in the deer'), a reference to Saint Eustace of Rome - the patron saint of hunters.