Pieter Brueghel the Elder (he removed the "h" from his name) was a Flemish painter born around 1525. Many of his works are panoramic landscapes crowded with people, painted with detailed precision and realistically depicting individual stories of rustic life. His Landscape With the Fall of Icarus is a bit different. (http://cgfa.acropolisinc.com/bruegel1/p-brue1-10.htm)
He has each of the individuals mentioned in Ovid's story: Down the bank a man is fishing and seems to be looking at his rod as it "dips and trembles over the water." In the middle ground there is a shepherd who "rests his weight upon his crook," his right leg folded over his left, with his sheep scattered about on a narrow strip. There is a dog sitting next to him and he is gazing upward caught up in a daydream. The ploughman in the foreground is concentrating on his work rather than resting "on the handles of the ploughshare." A large ship is sailing away from the shore. In the distance are a port town and ragged cliffs. The sun is setting into the water and giving the sky a yellow hazy glow. Down in the right-hand corner legs are sticking up awkwardly out of the water. They seem to be kicking in the air. That is the fallen Icarus. However none of the peasants are looking up "in absolute amazement," nor are they exclaiming, "They must be gods!" In fact, Daedalus is not in sight.
Herein lies the difference between Ovid and Brueghel's versions of the story. For Brueghel, Icarus's tragedy is recognized by no one except the viewer of the painting and then only as a small detail. The painting depicts a Flemish proverb: "No plough stops because a man dies." Of course the "man" in this instance is a boy and his death is not "natural" but something that could have been avoided. It seems that any one of the men could save him. In Ovid's case, the men are in awe thinking they are viewing gods. The complete lack of awareness of the men in Brueghel's painting seems to be saying something else about "humanity."
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