Pieter Bruegel: Dutch Proverbs

Pieter Bruegel was also known as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was a member of a well known artistic Netherlandish family: four generations of artists who lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Bruegel brought a human touch to traditional subjects and created new artistic traditions. He was inventive and, due to the fact art was the family trade and the subsequent advent of the print industry that developed after his time, Bruegel's impact has been long lasting.

‘Dutch Proverbs’ is 1559 oil on oak panel painting. ‘Dutch Proverbs’ depicts a land populated with literal renditions of Flemish proverbs. The picture is replete with references that are still in use today. Proverbs were popular at that time.
Pieter Bruegel's paintings carry the themes of the absurdity, wickedness and foolishness of mankind. The painting was originally titled ‘The Blue Cloak ‘or ‘The Folly of the World’, a study of human folly. Many of the people in the painting depict blank facial features: this means they are fools.

There are around 100 identifiable proverbs/ idioms in the painting. Some of them are:

Swimming against the tide and making life hard for oneself Big fish eat little fish - the successful ones will swallow one up, bigger ones always have an advantage

Banging one's head against a brick wall – trying to do something that will never work

Armed to the teeth- possessing many weapons

Casting roses before swine – wasting effort on those who are unworthy

Some are still in use or have never been used in the English language, for example, "having one's roof tiled with tarts”.

The ‘blue cloak’ referred to in the painting's original title is being placed on the man in the centre of the picture by his wife. This means she was cuckolding (i.e. having an affair) behind his back.

Other proverbs in the painting show mankind's fool hardy ways: a man fills in his pond after his calf dies; another man carries daylight in a basket. Some people in the painting represent more than one proverb, like the man shearing a sheep. He is next to a man shearing a pig, thus representing the proverb: "one shears sheep and one shears pigs" meaning that one job has an advantage. It also represents the proverb: "shear them but don't skin them".

Pieter Bruegel's themes are not a comment on the actual labors that each figure engages in, but on the atmosphere and society they live in. The landscape depicts a universal ideal vision of society.

“Dutch Proverbs” is located in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.