DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44747#0035
“To grill the herring for the sake of the roe.”
Do you know who grills the herring for its roe?
He who helps with something for a little compensation;
he who obligingly assists others
in the hope that he will be rewarded.
True virtue is always rewarded.30)
In Japan herring roe are a valuable food source, but in Europe
they are not as well-liked. Thus, “he grills the herring for the sake
of the roe” can refer to a person who helps someone without much
compensation in the hopes of a larger reward later, or it can mean
to work hard for something of little value.
There is another aspect of sixteenth-century culture which is
relevant to Bruegel’s Netherlandish Proverbs. It was a golden age of
proverbs in art as well as in literature. From the late fifteenth century
to the first half of the sixteenth century, proverbs began to be
included in the carvings on the bottoms of seats in church choir
stalls known as misericordia. (Since Bruegel’s master, Pieter Coeck
van Aalst designed the Last Supper for the stained glass of Sint-
Katherinakerk in Hoogstraten, it seems that Bruegel might have
visited there and became familiar with the misericords of proverbs in
the church, which were caved by Albrecht Gelmers (ca. 1532-1548).
There are abundant examples in the churches of Kempen in the
Rhine region and Hoogstraten, Diest, and Aalschot in Belgium.
Other contemporary examples of the use of proverbs, significant as
precedents to Bruegel, are the illustrations to French proverbial
poems now in the Baltimore Library (fig. 2) and the Flemish proverb
tapestries in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (depict-
ing a typical Flemish proverb, “hanging the blue cloak on the
husband” ) produced at the end of the fifteenth century.
It is impossible to overlook the popularity of proverb prints made
between the mid-sixteenth century and the early seventeenth cen-
tury by such artists as Johannes van Doetechum, Franciscus van den
Hoeye, Theodor Galle, Lodewijk Joseph Fruytiers, Johannes Galle,
and others.31^ In Germany, similar prints were made by Johann
Stridbeck II. Pieter Brueghel the Younger and his workshop mass-
produced copies of the Netherlandish Proverbs. At the beginning of
the seventeenth century, the workshop of Sebastiaan Vrancx incorpo-
rated 202 proverbs in a single picture. David Teniers II, who married
Bruegel’s granddaughter Anna, depicted about 45 proverbs after the
style of Bruegel.
In addition to these examples, I have identified a set of proverb
prints entitled Old Dutch Inn, popular, inexpensive woodcuts illus-
trating sixteen proverbs (fig. 3). The inscription reads, “Old Dutch
inns provide you with old Dutch sayings. Foods to suit all tastes are
prepared here.” It is implied that a person could choose a suitable
proverb just as someone would choose food from a menu.
In the seventeenth century, along with these collective repre-
sentations, there were prints showing a single proverb, for example,
Bruegel’s later work Proverb of the Peasant and the Bird’s Nest. Both
admonition and pleasure were provided by the inscriptions in the
margins as well as by the illustration of the proverb. For example, let
us look at Binding the Dog in the Pot, a print by Niclaes Clock
(fig.4). According to Jan David, the lesson of this proverb is that
“you should act as soon as you realize it is necessary.” In the picture,
an old farmer comes home late and finds the dog has eaten all his
food. Not only that, but his wife is with a young man, and he is
forced to bear the shame of a cuckolded husband. The Latin in-
scription reads,
Because I, an old man, married a young wife,
she likes young men and disrespects me.
The Dutch inscription on the bottom says,
Here is the dog in the pot
and another man with my wife.
Isn’t it a pity
that I, disgraced and ridiculed,
a wretched man, must wear the horns?32)
From a broad historical perspective, Bruegel’s Netherlandish
Proverbs can be placed beside Erasmus’s Adages as a highlight of the
development of art and literature in a golden age of proverbs. In
interpreting this work, one must carefully consider the nature of
people’s interest in proverbs, the cultural situation in which they
were enthusiastically compiled and published, and the ways in which
they were used as artistic motifs in tapestry, sculpture, prints, and
painting in the sixteenth century before Netherlandish Proverbs was
painted. Against this background, it is necessary to determine how
Bruegel’s work was related to these other uses of proverbs and in
particular how Bruegel interpreted and expressed specific proverbs in
comparison with contemporary proverb prints.
45
Do you know who grills the herring for its roe?
He who helps with something for a little compensation;
he who obligingly assists others
in the hope that he will be rewarded.
True virtue is always rewarded.30)
In Japan herring roe are a valuable food source, but in Europe
they are not as well-liked. Thus, “he grills the herring for the sake
of the roe” can refer to a person who helps someone without much
compensation in the hopes of a larger reward later, or it can mean
to work hard for something of little value.
There is another aspect of sixteenth-century culture which is
relevant to Bruegel’s Netherlandish Proverbs. It was a golden age of
proverbs in art as well as in literature. From the late fifteenth century
to the first half of the sixteenth century, proverbs began to be
included in the carvings on the bottoms of seats in church choir
stalls known as misericordia. (Since Bruegel’s master, Pieter Coeck
van Aalst designed the Last Supper for the stained glass of Sint-
Katherinakerk in Hoogstraten, it seems that Bruegel might have
visited there and became familiar with the misericords of proverbs in
the church, which were caved by Albrecht Gelmers (ca. 1532-1548).
There are abundant examples in the churches of Kempen in the
Rhine region and Hoogstraten, Diest, and Aalschot in Belgium.
Other contemporary examples of the use of proverbs, significant as
precedents to Bruegel, are the illustrations to French proverbial
poems now in the Baltimore Library (fig. 2) and the Flemish proverb
tapestries in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (depict-
ing a typical Flemish proverb, “hanging the blue cloak on the
husband” ) produced at the end of the fifteenth century.
It is impossible to overlook the popularity of proverb prints made
between the mid-sixteenth century and the early seventeenth cen-
tury by such artists as Johannes van Doetechum, Franciscus van den
Hoeye, Theodor Galle, Lodewijk Joseph Fruytiers, Johannes Galle,
and others.31^ In Germany, similar prints were made by Johann
Stridbeck II. Pieter Brueghel the Younger and his workshop mass-
produced copies of the Netherlandish Proverbs. At the beginning of
the seventeenth century, the workshop of Sebastiaan Vrancx incorpo-
rated 202 proverbs in a single picture. David Teniers II, who married
Bruegel’s granddaughter Anna, depicted about 45 proverbs after the
style of Bruegel.
In addition to these examples, I have identified a set of proverb
prints entitled Old Dutch Inn, popular, inexpensive woodcuts illus-
trating sixteen proverbs (fig. 3). The inscription reads, “Old Dutch
inns provide you with old Dutch sayings. Foods to suit all tastes are
prepared here.” It is implied that a person could choose a suitable
proverb just as someone would choose food from a menu.
In the seventeenth century, along with these collective repre-
sentations, there were prints showing a single proverb, for example,
Bruegel’s later work Proverb of the Peasant and the Bird’s Nest. Both
admonition and pleasure were provided by the inscriptions in the
margins as well as by the illustration of the proverb. For example, let
us look at Binding the Dog in the Pot, a print by Niclaes Clock
(fig.4). According to Jan David, the lesson of this proverb is that
“you should act as soon as you realize it is necessary.” In the picture,
an old farmer comes home late and finds the dog has eaten all his
food. Not only that, but his wife is with a young man, and he is
forced to bear the shame of a cuckolded husband. The Latin in-
scription reads,
Because I, an old man, married a young wife,
she likes young men and disrespects me.
The Dutch inscription on the bottom says,
Here is the dog in the pot
and another man with my wife.
Isn’t it a pity
that I, disgraced and ridiculed,
a wretched man, must wear the horns?32)
From a broad historical perspective, Bruegel’s Netherlandish
Proverbs can be placed beside Erasmus’s Adages as a highlight of the
development of art and literature in a golden age of proverbs. In
interpreting this work, one must carefully consider the nature of
people’s interest in proverbs, the cultural situation in which they
were enthusiastically compiled and published, and the ways in which
they were used as artistic motifs in tapestry, sculpture, prints, and
painting in the sixteenth century before Netherlandish Proverbs was
painted. Against this background, it is necessary to determine how
Bruegel’s work was related to these other uses of proverbs and in
particular how Bruegel interpreted and expressed specific proverbs in
comparison with contemporary proverb prints.
45