As you can see, the above is a rare original print by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the painting in question is called "The Hunters in the Snow"
The Hunters in the Snow (Dutch: Jagers in de Sneeuw), also known as The Return of the Hunters, is a 1565 oil-on-wood painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Northern Renaissance work is one of a series of works, five of which still survive, that depict different times of the year. The painting is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. This scene is set in the depths of winter during December/January.
As to the hunters by appearances the outing was not successful; the hunters appear to trudge wearily, and the dogs appear downtrodden and miserable. One man carries the "meager corpse of a fox" illustrating the paucity of the hunt. In front of the hunters in the snow are the footprints of a rabbit or hare - which has escaped or been missed by the hunters. The overall visual impression is one of a calm, cold, overcast day; the colors are muted whites and grays, the trees are bare of leaves, and wood smoke hangs in the air. Several adults and a child prepare food at an inn with an outside fire. Of interest are the jagged mountain peaks which do not exist in Belgium or Holland.
The landscape itself is a flat-bottomed valley (a river meanders through it) with jagged peaks visible on the far side. A watermill is seen with its wheel frozen stiff. In the distance, figures ice skate, play hockey with modern style sticks and curl on a frozen lake; they are rendered as silhouettes.
Most of Bruegel's landscape and genre painting follows in the broad tradition of Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). Thus his art is rarely if ever devoid of religious significance. The meaning of Hunters in the Snow is simply that the man himself is a powerless entity, of no consequence, who is at the mercy of the natural seasons and rhythms of the year. The implication is, that only faith in the Creator and the natural (divine) order can bring us meaning and comfort. This is a low-key example of religious art, which - like a good deal of Netherlandish art of the 16th and 17th century - provides a very ordinary (even secular) setting, for its message.
