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In "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W. H. Auden, who are the "Old Masters" referred to in line 2?
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In “Musee des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden, the Old Masters referred to in line 2 are the greatest Western painters from the Renaissance to the early nineteenth century. It is their works that adorn the eponymous museum and countless other museums and galleries throughout Europe and the United States.
In the poem "Musee des Beaux Arts," W.H. Auden writes of incidents in artwork in which casual onlookers appear unaffected by disasters. He gives several examples in the first stanza and focuses on a particular work of art in the second stanza. He emphasizes that the Old Masters understood the juxtaposition of those undergoing tragedies and people indifferently watching.
In a general sense, the term "Old Masters" refers to any talented European painter working in or before the eighteenth century. However, Auden bases his poem in particular on works he observed in the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, also known as the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, which are located in Brussels, Belgium. These museums mainly display the works of Dutch and Belgian artists.
Auden mainly focuses on the work of Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder. In the second stanza of the poem, Auden refers to Bruegel by name and mentions a painting commonly accredited to him called Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. In the painting, as Auden states, Icarus is falling into the sea while a plowman continues to work and a ship sails close by.
In the first stanza, Auden refers to several other Bruegel paintings. For instance, The Census at Bethlehem depicts Joseph leading Mary on a donkey while numerous people go about their activities all around, including a group of kids skating on a pond. Bruegel's painting The Massacre of the Innocents shows the murder of all young boys after the birth of Jesus, which Auden refers to when he writes that "the dreadful martyrdom must run its course."
In conclusion, when Auden mentions Old Masters, he is referring mainly to Dutch and Flemish artists who painted before the nineteenth century, and specifically to the works of Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
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