Winter Landscapes

12/11/2021

Substantial snowfalls are rare in northwestern Hungary, which is why I welcomed the twenty or so centimetres of the white stuff that blanketed this region on Thursday.

Most adults I know hate snow. Children, on the other hand, can't seem to get enough of it. Me? Well, I've always found snowy landscapes to be enchanting - I still do today.

The Magpie - Claude Monet - 1869

Winter - Ivan Shishkin - 1890

Winter Landscape - Johann Jungblut - 1885

Winter Landscape - László Mednyánszky - circa 1890

4 Comments

CRC

12/12/2021 04:39:29

Most adults are apparently fools, who fear and can find no beauty in austerity, who dislike strong contrasts and abhor definition and extremity. They like bright, abstract, mild, bland, tepid unstimulating unchallenging things.

Their preferences define the "Post Vatican II Novus Ordo" aesthetic, for example. Witness how they usually tend to flood every corner of every "worship space" with direct white LED track lighting, where every surface is painted light tan or egg shell white. No shadow, color or any other sensory contrasts are allowed to trespass their senses, minds or souls.

That's why they flee the north, and during summer blast air conditioning : they coddle themselves, and will not bear any sort of asceticism or discomfort at all.

The winter brings mystery, simplicity, silence and inner clarity with its suffering. It teaches you the beauty of cold, and the true meaning (the art and means) of being warm in opposition to it. The tomb of winter is also bound by the death of fall and is followed by the rebirth of spring, and that I suppose reminds them in profound ways of their true natural and supernatural condition in ways that they would rather ignore..

I love the winter. I too always find consolation in the snow.

Francis Berger

12/12/2021 09:26:06

@ CRC - Great comment.

Mike Bryant

12/12/2021 13:02:15

I was watching a programme last night on the middle ages they apparently believed that if you were dying of leprosy that your suffering would help you work off the sins you had accrued in your life and the suffering was therefore not all bad whereas now all suffering is bad and must be fought at all costs. Oh boy are we different from our ancesters.

NLR

12/13/2021 03:37:46

Great paintings

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Winter Landscapes

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