Why it matters
Peasants dance near a gallows on which a magpie sits, set in a sweeping world landscape. It contains a visual puzzle: the gallows forms an 'impossible object', like a Penrose triangle.
Did you know?
- It was painted in 1568 on a wood panel, perhaps as Bruegel's final work.
- The magpie is almost exactly at the centre of the painting.
- A man defecates in the shadows at the lower left.
- Bruegel asked his wife to burn some of his pictures on his death, but to keep this one for herself.
Based on the Wikipedia article The Magpie on the Gallows (CC BY-SA 4.0).
