Game: Hot or cold puzzle fun

Hot or cold puzzle fun

Investigating the seasons

The pictures of two seasons are hidden in the puzzle pieces of this game. If you put them together correctly, the two puzzles will tell you what people were doing 450 years ago, in summer and winter!

It's hotter than a monkey's uncle

Phew, it's pretty hot! This picture shows the month of June. In a wide landscape, you see peasants working hard in the fields. In summer, this included mowing and harvesting wheat or picking ripe cherries. This picture is one of a series of twelve paintings of the months by the Italian artist Leandro Bassano. In them, you can look over the shoulders of people working 450 years ago and find out what had to be done at which time of year. Leandro's pictures, with their many observations from everyday life, remind you of colourful calendar pages.

Click on the dots in the picture to learn more!

Bowl of cherries

At the entrance to a house, baskets of leafy lettuce, garlic cloves, and artichokes show the rich harvest from the fields. Would the monkey also like to nibble on the sweet cherries that a peasant woman is offering?

Lunchtime

In preparation for lunch, a young woman removes baskets full of bread and crockery from her shoulders. I wonder what's in the little pot, ready to be ladled out as refreshment?

Under a lucky star

The crayfish hovering in front of a dark cloud represents the constellation Cancer, one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. Depending on the position of the sun over the course of the year, people assigned a sign of the zodiac to each month – almost like a calendar in the sky!

No pain, no g(r)ain

Here, the cut wheat is being tied into bundles. A rider with a parasol monitors whether the work is coming along. In the past, people had to do this painstaking work by hand. Today, machines such as combine harvesters are used for this.

Winter wonderland?

Three hunters trudge with their dogs through the deep snow into the valley. Can you hear the crunching of their heavy footsteps? When Pieter Bruegel painted this picture almost 500 years ago, the winters were bitterly cold. Researchers also call this period the ‘Little Ice Age’. The artist mainly uses cold colours, such as cool white and icy blue. That's how he lets us really feel the cold! It's much too icy to work in the fields! The inhabitants of the snow-covered village make the best of the frosty weather and spend their free time on the ice. The further you look into the distant landscape, the smaller the people appear. Some of them look no larger than tiny ants. Bruegel probably used fine brushes and a magnifying glass to paint them.

Click on the dots in the picture to learn more!

The Golden Hart!

People are busy building a fire with straw in front of an inn to prepare a slaughtered pig for dinner. A sign above the entrance bears an inscription in old script that reads: ‘Dit is guden Hert’. This means: ‘This is the Golden Hart’.

Let's go sledging!

The thick icicles on the frozen mill wheel show how cold it was at the time. The woman on the bridge is carrying firewood on her shoulders. With it, she can really heat up the freezing winter! The children are not bothered by the cold: at last they can go sledging on the frozen river.

Fire alarm!

To the left of the church tower, flames are leaping out of the chimney of a small house. Every minute counts! Will the many helpers with their ladders be able to get to the roof in time to extinguish the fire?

Snow golf

In winter, besides ice skating and ice-stock shooting, ‘colf’ was also very popular. The game involved moving balls across the ice with sticks, similar to modern ice hockey.

Turn 4 into 6!

Back then, people not only counted four seasons, but sometimes six: early spring, late spring, early summer, late summer, autumn, and winter. Unfortunately, Bruegel's painting of late spring has been lost. What might it have looked like?

Learn more about Bruegel's six seasons:
Chapter II: The seasons à la Bruegel →

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Haymaking (Early Summer), 1565. Prague, Palais Lobkowicz, Prague Castle © The Lobkowicz Collections,
Palais Lobkowicz

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters (Late Summer), 1565. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1919 © Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow (Winter), 1565. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Leandro Bassano, January, 1581/87. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Leandro Bassano, February, 1581/87. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Leandro Bassano, March, 1581/87. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

Leandro Bassano, July (Spinning and Weaving), 1581/87. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery © KHM-Museumsverband

[Translate to English:] Leandro Bassano, November, 1581/87. Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie © KHM-Museumsverband

A picture for every month

Leandro's pictures, with their many observations from everyday life, remind you of colourful calendar pages.

Learn more about Bassano's calendar pages:
Chapter IV: Bassano's seasonal menu →

Exciting app tour on the climate crisis

The snowy landscapes in Bruegel's work are slowly disappearing today. Because the Earth is getting warmer and warmer.

You can find out more about how nature has changed over the course of time and the current climate crisis on our app tour A Snowball's Chance?! Climate, Art, and Catastrophes – for children and adults.

Explore the exhibition

Are you curious? A free kids’s booklet for young visitors aged 6 to 10 awaits you at the exhibition. This way, you can explore the exhibition on your own – Emilio and his friends will guide you!