“The Hunters In the Snow,” oil painting on wood by Pieter Bruegel
This work of Pieter Bruegel is a favorite of many people, but most know of his paintings only because of this one, “Hunters in the Snow,” a scene appearing on many Christmas cards. His paintings are beautiful because of his compositions make one of the opposites, based on Eli Siegel’s principle of aesthetic realism: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making of one of the opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.”
opposites are one
composing yesteryear’s coldness
stretching through time
standing still in the moment
searching the unrestricted
working with opposites
reassuring in sameness
emphasizing divergence
promising order
pleasing to self
— kenne
* * * * *“A girl, in ancient Greece,
Be sure, had no more peace
Than one in Idaho.
To feel and yet to know
Was hard in Athens, too.
I’m sure confusion grew
In Nika’s mind as she,
While wanting to be free,
Hoped deeply to adore
Someone; and so no more
Be wretched and alone.”
— from “The Dark That Was Is Here” by Eli Siegel
