![the story of the fall of icarus the story of the fall of icarus](https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/images/1674/tobias-verhaecht-fall-icarus-1689--thumb-xl.jpg)
A Flemish proverb states “And the farmer continued to plough…” (En de boer … hij ploegde voort).
![the story of the fall of icarus the story of the fall of icarus](https://cdn2.penguin.com.au/covers/original/9780141398686.jpg)
There are various interpretations as to the indifference of Bruegel’s three working men to the plight of Icarus. The difference, however, between the two, is that in Ovid’s poem Icarus’ fall is witnessed by the other three people, whereas in Bruegel’s painting it is not. All of these characters are mentioned in Ovid’s poem, and it is a definite likelihood that Bruegel drew directly from Ovid’s poem for the inspiration for his painting. This is the unfortunate Icarus, having just fallen into the sea. A fourth person is identified only as a pair of legs protruding from the ocean just a little ways off shore. The plowman is front and center, and the other two are more distant. There are three immediately identifiable persons, that of a plowman, a shepherd, and a fisherman. The painting shows a landscape which is roughly one third land, in the foreground, one third sea, in the middle, and one third sky with a bright sun taking up The painting, 28.9 inches by 44 inches long, is thought to be by Pieter Bruegel, though more recent examinations have led art experts to believe that it is a very good early copy of the Bruegel original. Unfortunately, Icarus did not heed his father’s warnings to avoid flying too high or too low, and in his exuberance of flight drew near to the sun, let the wax melt on his wings, and plummeted to his death. Pieter Bruegel’s oil painting on canvas, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (c.1560s), derives from Ovid’s telling of the story of Icarus, a boy who was given wings fashioned by his father so that the two together could flee imprisonment.