Brughel: The Proverbs

The wiki article on the painting 99 Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559, by Bruegel the Elder, which I have come to use frequently in talking about what art is, finally includes a list of the identifiable proverbs or idioms of the time, and a little image from the painting where the proverb is symbolized. 

Many of the expressions are current, some are insightful - but this painting is so astoundingly rich a mere list of the proverbs is a very pale shadow of its qualities- the particular drawing, the color the many thousands of specific choices to bring it into existence. I have always been especially drawn to its democracy- hundreds of characters, from all walks of society, presented in an attentive equality, humor, tenderness and sometimes contempt. An amazing work, and a timeless refutation of the strange rejection of attentive seeing that characterized contemporary art for some time.

Some of the better old proverbs are of course much fun:

"To have the roof tiled with tarts" means to be filthy rich. It's a great image and one Bruegel reuses in other paintings.

"To be pissing against the moon."

"They both shit through the same hole."

"Tie a flaxen beard to the face of Christ." One reason this is interesting is that is overwhelmingly a secular picture- overtly Christian symbols are rare. And even this one means "to hide deceit under a veneer of christian piety." Even more odd, this character is a late renaissance image of Christ that is not religious in intent- it's an illustration of a principle.

I also hope this explains the obscure joke in Rebar for Tootsie Rolls where Mack pays a guy to engrave this on his .38. That would be pissing against the moon.