Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by P. Bruegel Holiday Postcard

Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, 1560. Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (1525-1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes. In Greek mythology, Icarus succeeded in flying, with wings made by his father Daedalus, using feathers secured with beeswax. Ignoring his father's warnings, Icarus chose to fly too close to the sun, melting the wax, and fell into the sea and drowned. His legs can be seen in the water just below the ship. The sun, already half-set on the horizon, is a long way away; the flight did not reach anywhere near it.