Pieter Brueghel, the Younger - The Netherlandish Proverbs
Pieter Brueghel the Younger based this animated scene, teeming with figures, on an original composition by his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen). It visualises the vernacular and wit of the sixteenth-century Netherlandish people in the figurative representation of over one hundred proverbs. Proverbs and sayings had long been collected in compendia, however, interest in them reached new levels at this time. The best-known compendium was Erasmus’s Adagia, published in 1500, which explained around eight hundred proverbs and sayings from classical antiquity to biblical times.
[Christie’s, London - Oil on canvas, 121.3 x 166.7 cm]
Pieter Brueghel, the Younger - The Netherlandish Proverbs
Pieter Brueghel the Younger based this animated scene, teeming with figures, on an original composition by his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen). It visualises the vernacular and wit of the sixteenth-century Netherlandish people in the figurative representation of over one hundred proverbs. Proverbs and sayings had long been collected in compendia, however, interest in them reached new levels at this time. The best-known compendium was Erasmus’s Adagia, published in 1500, which explained around eight hundred proverbs and sayings from classical antiquity to biblical times.
[Christie’s, London - Oil on canvas, 121.3 x 166.7 cm]