More than 450 years ago, Dutch master painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted The Dutch Proverbs, an oil on wood painting that visually represents over 100 Dutch proverbs.
Many of these proverbs still exist today such as 'when the cat's away, the mice will play', or 'banging your head against a brick wall'.
The work is on permanent display at Berlin's Gemäldegalerie.
Scroll down to see them all and see how many you recognise!
The Netherlandish Proverbs. Pieter Bruegel the Elder. 1559. Oil on wood. 163 x 117 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin:
1 To crap on the world. (To despise everything.)
62 Move like your ass is on fire!
53 Sitting on hot coals. (To be impatient.)
54 To be pissing against the moon. (To be pissing into the wind.)
45 If the blind lead the blind, both will fall in the ditch. (The blind leading the blind.)
46 It is ill to swim against the current. (An uphill battle.)
47 Two dogs over one bone seldom agree. (To argue uselessly over a single point).
48 To hang one's cloak according to the wind. (To adapt one's viewpoint to the current opinion.)
49 To sit between two stools in the ashes. (To be indecisive.)
310 To lead each other by the nose. (To fool each other.)
2
0 Comments