Editing Little Ice Age (section)

====Depictions of winter in European painting====

[[File:Reverend Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) Skating on Duddingston Loch.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[The Skating Minister|The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch]]'', attributed to [[Henry Raeburn]], 1790s]]
William James Burroughs analyzes the depiction of winter in paintings, as does [[Hans Neuberger]].<ref name=neu1>{{cite book|title=Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=W2eDDMIeqpoC|page=225}} |first=Douglas |last=Macdougall |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004|page=225 |isbn=978-0-520-24824-3}}</ref> Burroughs asserts that it occurred almost entirely from 1565 to 1665 and was associated with the climatic decline from 1550 onwards. Burroughs claims that there had been almost no depictions of winter in art, and he "hypothesizes that the unusually harsh winter of 1565 inspired great artists to depict highly original images and that the decline in such paintings was a combination of the 'theme' having been fully explored and mild winters interrupting the flow of painting."<ref name="Earth Environments p. 863">{{cite book|first1=David |last1=Huddart|first2=Tim |last2=Stott|title=Earth Environments: Past, Present and Future|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ohpdmnPFlHEC|page=863}}|year=2010|page=863|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-0-470-74960-9}}</ref> Wintry scenes, which entail technical difficulties in painting, have been regularly and well handled since at least the early 15th century by artists in [[illuminated manuscript]] cycles that show the ''[[Labours of the Months]]'', typically placed on the calendar pages of [[book of hours|books of hours]]. January and February are typically shown as snowy, as in ''February'' in the famous cycle in the {{lang|fr|[[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]]}}, painted in 1412–1416 and illustrated below. Since [[landscape painting]] had not yet developed as an independent genre in art, the absence of other winter scenes is not remarkable. On the other hand, snowy winter landscapes, particularly stormy seascapes, became artistic genres in the [[Dutch Golden Age painting]] during the coldest and stormiest decades of the Little Ice Age.<ref name="deg254"/> Most modern scholars believe them to be full of symbolic messages and metaphors, which would have been clear to contemporary viewers.<ref name="deg254">{{cite book |author=Degroot |first=Dagomar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqhJDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 |title=The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560–1720 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-108-41931-4 |location=New York |page=254 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Hunters in the Snow (Winter) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Hunters in the Snow]]'' by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]], 1565]]
All of the famous winter landscape paintings by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]], such as ''[[The Hunters in the Snow]]'' and the ''[[Massacre of the Innocents (Bruegel)|Massacre of the Innocents]]'', are thought to have been painted around 1565. His son [[Pieter Brueghel the Younger]] (1564–1638) also painted many snowy landscapes, but according to Burroughs, he "slavishly copied his father's designs. The derivative nature of so much of this work makes it difficult to draw any definite conclusions about the influence of the winters between 1570 and 1600".<ref name="Earth Environments p. 863"/><ref name="Information1980">{{cite magazine |title=The art of the weather |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=ainC3-wuz_kC|page=768}} |last=Burroughs |first=William |magazine=New Scientist |date=18-25 December 1980 |volume=88 |number=1232–1233 |pages=768–771 |issn=0262-4079 }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="lock1"/> Bruegel the Elder painted ''Hunters in the Snow'' in Antwerp, so the mountains in the picture probably mean it was based on drawings or memories from crossing of the [[Alps]] during his trip to Rome in 1551–1552. It is one of 5 known surviving paintings, probably from a series of 6 or 12, known as "the Twelve Months", that Breugel was commissioned to paint by a wealthy patron in [[Antwerp]], [[Nicolaes Jonghelinck]] (''Hunters in the Snow'' being for January): none of the other four that survive show a snow-covered landscape and both ''[[The Hay Harvest]]'' (July) and ''[[The Harvesters (painting)|The Harvesters]]'' (August) depict warm summer days. Even ''[[The Return of the Herd]]'' (thought to be the painting for November) and ''[[The Gloomy Day]]'' (known to be for February) show landscapes free of snow.<ref name="lock1"/>

[[File:Hendrick Avercamp - Winterlandschap met ijsvermaak.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''Winter landscape with iceskaters'', {{circa|1608}}, [[Hendrick Avercamp]]|left]]
Burroughs says that snowy subjects return to [[Dutch Golden Age painting]] with works by [[Hendrick Avercamp]] from 1609 onwards. There is a hiatus between 1627 and 1640, which is before the main period of such subjects from the 1640s to the 1660s. That relates well with climate records for the later period. The subjects are less popular after about 1660, but that does not match any recorded reduction in severity of winters and may reflect only changes in taste or fashion. In the later period between the 1780s and 1810s, snowy subjects again became popular.<ref name="Earth Environments p. 863"/> Neuberger analyzed 12,000 paintings, held in American and European museums and dated between 1400 and 1967, for cloudiness and darkness.<ref name=neu1/> His 1970 publication shows an increase in such depictions that corresponds to the Little Ice Age,<ref name=neu1/> which peaks between 1600 and 1649.<ref name="John1999">{{cite book |last1=Thornes |first1=John E. |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=gbElMV-jhzQC|page=31}} |title=John Constable's skies: a fusion of art and science |last2=Constable |first2=John |publisher=Continuum International |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-902459-02-8 |page=32 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Winter (Adriaen van de Venne).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Winter ([[Adriaen van de Venne]]) 1614]]
Paintings and contemporary records in Scotland demonstrate that [[curling]], [[ice skating]] and [[Iceboat|icesailing]] were popular outdoor winter sports, with curling dating to the 16th century and becoming widely popular in the mid-19th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paperclip.org.uk/kilsythweb/Communityresources/Curlinghistory.htm |title=Kilsyth Curling |access-date=11 September 2010 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205002421/http://www.paperclip.org.uk/kilsythweb/Communityresources/Curlinghistory.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> An outdoor curling pond constructed in [[Gourock]] in the 1860s remained in use for almost a century, but increasing use of indoor facilities, problems of vandalism, and milder winters led to the pond being abandoned in 1963.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gourockcurlers.co.uk/clubh.htm |title=The Story so Far!!! |year=2009 |publisher=Gourock Curling Club |access-date=11 September 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425051310/http://www.gourockcurlers.co.uk/clubh.htm |archive-date=25 April 2012 }}</ref>