Imagine it’s the 1560s and attending dinner at a country house outside what is now Antwerp, Belgium.

[Dante]

Let’s start by going back in time. Imagine it’s the 1560s and your friend Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a well-to-do banker, invites you to dinner at his country house outside what is now Antwerp, Belgium.

There, in a single room, you encounter six large paintings — each more than five feet across — adorning the walls. They are the work of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Together, these imaginary scenes depict villagers living and working through the changing seasons.

One of the six is the painting you just spent 2 minutes and 24 seconds with, now called “Hunters in the Snow,” a depiction of a harsh winter:

disclosure: source is the much dreaded (by some), NYT

 

[Dante]

The other five scenes continue on a march through the year. Our winter painting gives way to early spring (“The Gloomy Day”):

 

[Dante]

Then on to later spring (that panel is now, unfortunately, lost — most likely as the paintings were changing hands sometime between 1595 and 1659).

And early summer (“Haymaking”):

 

[Dante]

Late summer (“The Harvesters”):

 

[Dante]

And finally, fall (“The Return of the Herd”):

 

[Dante]

These scenes are from Bruegel’s imagination, possibly inspired by the landscape of coastal northwestern Europe and his travels in the Italian Alps.

You would have been a very lucky guest to have seen all six paintings in one place. They’ve since been split up and scattered across the world, through the hands of archdukes and emperors, from private estates to grand palaces, and now accessible to the public. “Haymaking” (early summer) is on display at the Lobkowicz Palace Museum in Prague; “The Harvesters” (late summer) is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and the remaining three are at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Jonathan Fine, the director of the Kunsthistorisches museum, is our guide today to “Hunters in the Snow.” (The painting will be featured in a coming show at the museum in March.)

 

[Dante]

 

[hondo 50]

1560s. Those were the days!

 

[Dante]

1560s. Those were the days!

For some...

I doubt most everybody here had family roots that did not do very well back then, which is why they left home and came to the new colonies my family helped start

 

[hondo 50]

For some...

I doubt most everybody here had family roots that did not do very well back then, which is why they left home and came to the new colonies my family helped start

wut?