Location — Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
“The Harvesters” is part of an iconic set of six paintings representing the seasons, commissioned by a merchant in Antwerp named Nicolaes Jonghelinck. Five of the original six, survive even today. They are “The Gloomy Day,” “Hunters in the Snow,” “The Return of the Herd” and “Haymaking”
As with most of his paintings, Bruegel’s focus is on peasants and their daily life. What makes his artwork so refreshing though, is its detachment from any form of religious connotations — a fundamental aspect of European art back in the 16th century. On the contrary The Harvesters is based on realism and natural observations by taking away any religious or iconographic allegory associated with earlier depictions of seasons especially in European or Renaissance art. In fact THE MET calls it “The First Modern Landscape”
It’s a hot, dry summer day in 16th century Flanders. Farm hands grab a break from reaping the harvest while they eat lunch and take an afternoon nap under a tree. Behind them, the peaceful countryside is bustling with life. Villagers steal from an orchard, others enjoy harvest games on the green. A cart filled with golden hay winds its way to the church flanked by a pond where some monks escape the heat of the day with an indulgent swim. Up north in the harbour, ships set to sail, blow steam.
Look closer though. What seems like a sleepy pastoral scene has more details than meets the eye. There is a daring escape of some thieves, as well as a vicious game involving the torture of a goose for dinner rights amongst neighbours. In the foreground, some of the peasants are shown eating while others are harvesting, while some others are simply taking a nap. A depiction capturing the production and consumption of food along with the human need to rest, in the same frame of context.
Circle of life.
It is a sweeping landscape, which forces the eye to move from front to back, through the entire painting. The progression of space however, is not linear as in many landscape treatments. Each space has its own sub-story. The narrative is told through this combination of spaces. A progression of five or six movements. From the harvested field, to the untilled land, to the path into the church and the deeper interiors of the village which house the playing fields and the distant harbour.
The segmentation and subsequent treatment of each space also articulates the journey of the harvest. Each sub-frame reveals different stages of the harvest economy and the livelihood of peasant villagers. Once the villagers harvest the crop, the crop is carried to the road. A cart transports it from the edge of the village toward the distant town. Here, ships await so that they, in turn, can transport it to larger centres of manufacturing and trade.The Harvesters almost connects the dots of an entire agrarian economy, depicting the peasants as the heart of a social system and capturing the lifestyle they embrace during the harvest season. The novelty of this storytelling forces Bruegel to create equal levels of complexity and detail in the foreground and background. And he does it masterfully by introducing new subjects and colours.
The realism of the 16th-century Flemish harvest season comes to life.
Mankind and nature bound together in a microcosm of time. Disjoint in action yet connected to the celebration of life.
