Netherlandish Proverbs

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Netherlandish Proverbs (1559) 

Also called The Folly of the World, this large and detailed painting illustrates over a hundred different traditional Dutch sayings, 

I return to it regularly so I might both laugh and cry at the vanity and the silliness of the human condition. As with all proverbs, the comedy and the tragedy help to teach me valuable lessons about life. 

The specific listing of proverbs in this series is taken from Rainer and Rose-Marie Hagen. 

Here are also two links to online interactive versions: 

http://bruegel.analog.is 

http://s3.imagediver.org/topic/album/4294b0e/the_dutch_proverbs/1/index.html