Netherlandish Proverbs

The figure illustrates the Flemish saying hij pist tegen de maan, he pisses against the moon, an idiom for futile defiance against the inevitable. The same construction survives in English slang. Bruegel populated the panel with over a hundred such proverbs, each visualised literally. Most are catalogued; some have died out; a few are still spoken. Now at Gemäldegalerie, Berlin @gemaeldegalerie_smb