To modern eyes, Hunters in the Snow might evoke a picture-perfect winter’s day, full of charm and nostalgia that is both familiar and influential, but for Bruegel and his contemporaries, winter was not picturesque, it was harsh, dangerous, and often deadly. In that sense, the painting’s beauty is inseparable from its melancholy. It is not a ‘celebration’ of winter but a recognition of it, an honest, empathetic portrayal of human beings enduring and coexisting with the overwhelming force of nature. It is that bittersweet tension, that makes Hunters in the snow, such an emotive and timeless image.