Details of “The Harvesters” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Say it slowly with me: 7 billion pixels! This is how many pixels are in some of the “gigapixel” images that the Google Arts & Culture Project is scanning with its magic Art Camera. This camera is sent to different museums around the world to scan some of the most famous artworks for free. And we can then zoom in and see this incredible art closer, than even the artist who created it, could ever see it.

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I don’t know about you, but during lockdowns I certainly binged on some of those masterpieces. They are all fun to explore but “The Harvesters” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565, probably lend themselves best to this modern way of art viewing.

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Literally, every centimeter of this canvas contains something fascinating! I am not going to bore you with the art historical mumbo jumbo this time – sometimes it’s fun just to look.

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Zoom in and look at

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The three ladies, one of them deep in her own thoughts…

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The cart with shiny, almost translucent wheels, pulled by an ox…

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Some thieves chased by guards through an orchard that belongs to the castle...

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The monks having a swim in the pond (have you ever seen the buttocks of a monk?)…🍑

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A bunch of kids and adults playing “cock throwing” (don’t google it, I implore you)…

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A person doing their business right in someone’s front yard...💩

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A little procession moving along the winding road far off into the distance beyond the realm of the painting…

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And so much more...

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As much as I love exploring these details on my laptop screen, I still wish I was standing in front of it at the Met. Why do you think we feel less when we look at reproductions?

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P. S. if you are an art sleuth like me, check out “The Harvesters” on the Met’s website, where you will find an image of what’s apparently Bruegel’s fingerprint. Then go back to the gigapixel image and try to find it there. If you need help, let me know in the comments👇

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder, “The Harvesters”, 1565, oil on wood, MMA