Bruegel Masterpiece at Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna Inspires Artisan BITE Bass
Pieter Bruegel the Elder probably had many things in mind when painting his Hunters in the Snow in oil on oak wood in 1565. This masterpiece tells plenty of little stories about winterly pastimes and precarious livlihoods in the Early Modern Age.
What the Flemish Master presumably did not have in mind was that this painting would, several centuries later, become one of the most popular ones in fine arts globally, displayed in permanent exhibition at Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. The painting's popularity was lately taken to a different level as it was replicated by hand to design an exquisite electric bass guitar.
An international art collector and bass player who regularly visits Vienna to immerse himself in the wonderworld of Kunsthistorisches' Bruegel Hall asked BITE Guitars to replicate the painting on a guitar body. BITE has become renowned for colorful artwork guitars, offering a range of digital and manual techniques.
The firm's art director is a scenic painter for movies of Oscar and Palme d'Or rank, skilled in photo-realistic reproductions, who also painted the bass for Robbie Williams' 2023 world tour by faithfully replicating Robbie's own stage design onto the tour bass guitar.
He copied Bruegel's painting onto the guitar body in minute detail, little twigs even by one-hair-brush. Positioning the rectangular image section on the oddly shaped guitar body proved to be a special challege that he met by repositioning little elements, a bird here, a horse and cart there.
It all came together in a video shooting in front of the original painting in the Bruegel Hall combining venerable high culture, skilled handicraft and some groovy jazz tunes.
