Hunters in the snow: Pieter Bruegel's pastoral idyll

Pieter Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow must be the best-loved winter scene of all, and with good reason. This imaginary landscape represents January in a cycle of the Months, and was painted in 1565. What makes it so beguiling? The human warmth and sense of community. For every snow-capped peak and bare black tree, Bruegel includes a skater on the frozen ponds. His village is a place of fun and games despite the harsh conditions – because of them. Hunters may hunch, but children are full of glee. Bruegel’s people are tied to the earth and to one another. No wonder astronauts have this on the wall in their space station in Tarkovsky’s film Solaris, to connect them with Bruegel’s frozen – yet human – planet Illustration: PR