I am looking for a painting of a sea with a hand flailing in the air. It is so small and so distant that it is so easy to miss that the person is drowning.
Can you be more specific? That’s a pretty common image.
Not a lot to go on, but is Turner’s Slave Ship in the right ballpark? Do you know what century it was painted in?
Thank you so much that is it!!! I’ve been searching for days!!
Yes- Right at am77494!! Pieter Bruegel de Oude!!
Thank you Doug K and capybara!!
Just to point out that those are legs/feet flailing and not a hand:
“In Greek mythology, Icarus succeeded in flying, with wings made by his father Daedalus, using feathers secured with wax. 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.”
Here’s a closeup
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Moved to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Thank you gkster!! The close up adds a whole another dimension to it.
If you are moved by this image, you might enjoy the novel Headlong by Michael Frayn, which is about another Bruegel painting and is specifically based on Bruegel’s use of these dramatic, almost imperceptible background figures and their meaning. IIRC, the book discusses *The Fall of Icarus *at some length.
Brueghel the Elder: the original Where’s Waldo?
Headlong is one of Frayn’s best works.
But also worth mentioning Auden’s Musee des Beaux Arts. And, for that matter, William Carlos Williams and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.
I was going to post a link to the Auden poem. Except my link would have included this sweet recap of the X-Files’ “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose.”
Thanks! Will check it out!