This panel is exceptionally well preserved, and represents a pinnacle of Western art. For the first time in Western art, landscape is no longer just a backdrop or a setting for biblical subjects. Instead, it appears in its own right. Here it is shown as the place in which the common man and woman go about their ordinary lives – following the natural cycle of the seasons that determine their everyday existence. The peasants, in what was then a totally rural and non-industrialized world, are shown as being in a pre-ordained and inescapable communion with nature. As such, Brueghel elevates their hard and mundane lives to something that is heroic, yet idyllic