Breughel's Icarus

 

• ·         Subject: ‘The Old Masters’ the subject is in second line of power. Words in ‘correct order’.
• ·         Auden Argument is “the old masters were never wrong about suffering.”
• ·         He begins with the general statement and moves more and more into specifics into the picture.
• ·         He provides evidence of his argument. His argument is that people seem to walk by not realizing others pain. Some specific examples are the children skating on a pong, or the man sailing on calmly.
• ·         The Old Masters could be de Vinci, van Gogh, Aristotle, etc. It is capitalized because they are the subject, and it conveys their importance.
• ·         How Auden moves through his poem is that he is very general in his argument in the beginning, however he becomes more and more specific all the way through the end.
• ·         Breughel’s Icarus is a painting in Musee des Beaux Arts.
• ·         Auden’s thesis is that we don’t consider others’ suffering as much as we should. We don’t stop to recognize how other people may be feeling and the pains that they go through. We seemed to be more absorbed in ourselves.
• ·         I would have to agree with his thesis. Even though that there are people who are very compassionate, there’s still a big chunk of people who don’t realize that people are in the same boat as they are when it comes to going through hardships and trials in their lives.
• ·         How Auden’s historical and cultural context affects his writing is that he has lived in Europe during WWII. He has seen the horrific actions of Hitler and how millions of people were taken into the concentration camps. People had fear instilled in them. He knows what it’s like to suffer greatly, and he can sympathize with others.  
• ·         Why he says the old masters are never wrong is because they know what it’s like to feel pain, and they have suffered themselves, so they can relate to others that are having a difficult time.
• ·         Their esteem that they hold is high because they are wise.
• ·         They have a high esteem because they’ve been on the world longer than a lot of the people so they know what can come into life that can either corrupt life or make life enjoyable.
• ·         It certainly can affect what he sees. He can see the passion and feeling that was put into that piece of art, and to him that is beautiful.
• ·         He uses Breughel’s Icarus as his thesis because it talks about how people walk on by, not thinking of others. People are too wrapped up in their own lives, so he believes that people hardly stop to help those around them.
• ·         There are similarities between the two. One example is that the people in Germany never took a stand to go against Hitler because they were afraid for their own lives, and the Old Masters see people not helping those in need either.
• ·         Differences are people being instilled with fear from the Auden’s historical context versus people just walking along not really paying attention to those that are in need.
• ·         The painting does have a message. It depicts how people are just walking along, a man fell into the ocean, and no one stops to help him. The ships don’t even help the man out of the ocean even though they are right there.
• ·         We would expect to see a guy named Icarus falling if we were to think literally, but it could also be the fall of Icarus’ throne or him losing the title of ‘king’.
• ·         What we see are people walking along a pathway, a vast ocean, ships, a village far away, a small island with a building on it, and lots of scenery.
• ·         The dominating feature of the painting is probably the man walking down a path above the rest of the scenery.
• ·         The small details of lighting, color, etc. are very important. They highlight the things that are the most important part of the picture to emphasize the meaning of the artwork.
• ·         Icarus is very important in the artwork so he has some special details to make him stand out.
• ·         Icarus is the guy who fell in the water.
• ·         He’s small because people don’t really see him struggling to get out of the water, relating back to Auden’s thesis.
• ·         People are responding to his tragedy by not helping out Icarus.
• ·         It relates back to Auden’s thesis on how people don’t really stop to notice others in need.
• ·         The painting does depict his thesis or his ideas of people well.
• ·         Brueghel’s historical and cultural context portrays how people act towards others very well. Since Icarus is so tiny and insignificant, it shows how people don’t stop to help one another.
• ·         The difference is that there’s a father that cares for his son, and they are flying with their handmade wings.
• ·         Ovid’s view is different because he illustrates a picture of a father caring for his son. The father warns him of the dangers and carefully watches over him, unlike Brueghel’s thought of people not caring for one another.
• ·         Events that were happening in 1^st century B.C.E. are philosophers, inventions, etc.
• ·         It would affect Ovid’s story telling because of the cultural and historical context. Everything was definitely different in the 1^st century.