Exploring the World
 

Twelve Proverbs
1558

These panels, joined together to create one picture, perhaps served originally as a kind of plate. The majority of the proverbs may also be found in the painting from 1559.

The same is true of Netherlandish Proverbs (1559). Here, too, the main axis leads from front left to back right; here, too, Bruegel has built in a divergence from perspective, in the form of the tarts on the roof, unexpectedly depicted head-on rather than foreshortened. Given the well-thought-out manner in which Bruegel painted, this can hardly be an error. Is he playing a game? Or is he consciously seeking to confuse?
Collecting proverbs was one of the many encyclopaedic undertakings in the 16th century. Erasmus of Rotterdam, the great humanist, began by publishing proverbs and the famous formulations of Latin authors in 1500. Flemish and German collections followed, while Rabelais' novel Pantagruel, with its description of an island of proverbs, appeared in 1564. By 1558, Bruegel had already painted his series of Twelve Proverbs, consisting of small, individual panels. His village of proverbs, however, was something apparently never attempted before; not a set of proverbs somehow strung together but a painting completely worked out in every detail.
More than a hundred proverbs and idiomatic expressions have been identified, many no longer in current usage - and many reflecting the considerably more direct language customary in that day and age! The majority describe stupid, immoral, crazy ways of behaviour. A devil is hearing confession in the pavilion that forms the focal point of the work; further to the right, a monk is mocking Christ and masking him with a beard; to his left, a woman is hanging a blue cloak over her husband's shoulders, signifying that she is deceiving him; a globe is hanging in front of the wall of the house, its cross pointed downwards to indicate the "topsy-turvy world" with which the painter was concerned: as with the children's games, he was motivated here not only by a passion for collecting but also by a particular, sceptical view of his contemporaries.

Netherlandish Proverbs
1559

More than a hundred proverbs and idiomatic expressions have been identified, describing "topsy-turvy" ways of behaviour. This explains the other name occasionally given the painting, that of The Topsy-Turvy World. While one fellow lets the world dance upon his thumb (to his tune), another is unable to stretch from one loaf of bread to another - in other words, he is no good with money. If you spill your porridge, you will never be able to spoon it all back into the bowl: if you try to open your mouth wider than an oven door, you are overestimating your abilities.

Netherlandish Proverbs (detail)
1559

The collecting of proverbs was one of the many encyclopaedic undertakings in the 16th century.
Bruegel is offering more than a simple catalogue here: he presents us with a topsy-turvy world, with the Devil seen in the centre of the picture hearing someone's confession.

Netherlandish Proverbs (detail)
1559