Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder Mouse Mat

Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565, is an oil and egg tempera painting of a vast winter landscape with a trio of hunters and their dogs returning to their town in the snow. Starkly silhouetted against white snow, the hunters carry only one dead fox, tied to a stick. Their dogs appear a bit underfed, if not unhappy. Nearby townspeople build a fire. In the distance past a watermill, villagers skate upon a frozen lake. In the distance against grey winter skies are jagged mountains. Bruegel’s painting is one of the most iconic and widely recognized images in all of Western art, and is also known by the title The Return of the Hunters. Pieter Bruegel (Brueghel) the Elder (c. 1525 - 1569) was a Dutch/Flemish painter and printmaker of the Northern Renaissance. Among the first artists to incorporate subject matter from landscape and the life of common people, Bruegel all but invented the art of Dutch genre painting. Bruegel painted a number of religious works but is best known for his lively, allegorical paintings of peasants and witty commentary and on life, sin and virtue. His innovative compositions and carefully observed, realistic details influenced many generations of artists, from Rembrandt through the Realists of the modern era.