Mad Meg (Dulle Griet)
Pieter Brueghel The Elder – Mad Meg (Dulle Griet)
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Painter: Pieter Brueghel The Elder
Location: Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp (Kunstverzameling Mayer van den Bergh).
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One of Brueghel’s most frightening paintings. The horror of this painting can be explained somewhat by the incomprehensibility of this painting and all the events that occur on it. If we consider the painting "Mad Greta" from the side of emotional perception, it surpasses even Bosch’s phantasmagoric images and designs in its expressiveness. On closer inspection, we see a blood-red sky that is obscured by a sinister haze, with the whole picture simply dotted with various vile and sinister creatures.
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Description of Peter Brueghel’s painting "Mad Greta"
One of Brueghel’s most frightening paintings. The horror of this painting can be explained somewhat by the incomprehensibility of this painting and all the events that occur on it. If we consider the painting "Mad Greta" from the side of emotional perception, it surpasses even Bosch’s phantasmagoric images and designs in its expressiveness.
On closer inspection, we see a blood-red sky that is obscured by a sinister haze, with the whole picture simply dotted with various vile and sinister creatures. We see huge, ugly heads with big eyes that spawn these horrible creatures.
At the same time, the people who are around do not seem to notice anything that is happening, but die because of the crush that they themselves have created, because they are blinded by their greed and try their best to get as much gold as they can. People don’t notice that it’s not really gold, but the filth that the ugly giant spews out.
The picture is striking and disgusting not because of the ugly creatures, but because of the fact that people are maddened by their baseness, stupidity and vices.
It is because of them that the atmosphere of utter hell is created, not because of the devil and the monsters. It is not the creepy monsters, not the devil himself, that strike in this painting, but the people, mad and steeped in vices. At the center of the canvas stands an enormous woman who is dressed in some rags. She holds a sword in her hand and a dagger concealed at her waist, apparently carrying someone’s belongings. Not far from her, ordinary people are robbing someone’s house.
That said, the title of the painting itself has symbolism. At that time, Big Greta, was called a big gun, and most likely, the artist tried to show all the terrible motives of war, which covers the world. In confirmation of this half-destroyed walls of the fortress, fires and large troops with deadly spears in their arsenal.
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A woman lost everything that gave her life meaning. Her children were lost in the war, her husband died in a drunken fight. Her home was destroyed, and she was living in poverty. And now, someone even stole her frying pan. The last straw. A desperate woman is capable of snatching a frying pan from the devil himself. The desire and determination to possess what she has never had. Thats what it means to be properly motivated.
Women exist only for the propagation of the human race, and this is the sum total of their purpose.
(Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860)
And if she is the motivation behind the madness?
You cannot comment Why?
In Pieter Bruegel the Elders Mad Meg (also known as Dulle Griet), the painting depicts a chaotic and hellish landscape filled with grotesque figures and unsettling imagery. The scene is dominated by a dark, fiery sky and a sprawling, nightmarish town.
What I see:
At the forefront, a stout, determined woman, Mad Meg, strides purposefully. She wears armor and carries a sword, and a basket filled with ill-gotten goods slung over her shoulder. She seems unfazed by the surrounding pandemonium.
The landscape is a desolate expanse dotted with bizarre architectural structures, some resembling monstrous faces or distorted buildings. Strange creatures, a mix of animals and demons, populate the ground and air. In the middle ground, a crowd of people, also depicted with grotesque features, are engaged in various acts of violence, looting, and torment. Some are being attacked by monstrous beings, others are falling into pits, and some are being transported in a strange boat-like contraption.
The background is a scene of destruction: burning buildings, smoke billowing into the sky, and a general sense of infernal chaos. There are ships in the distance, also seemingly engaged in some form of conflict or disaster. The overall impression is one of a world overrun by madness, sin, and destruction.
Subtexts:
Mad Meg is widely interpreted as a commentary on the follies and sins of mankind, particularly during a time of social and political unrest.
In essence, Mad Meg is a moralistic painting that uses vivid, often disturbing, imagery to comment on the dark aspects of human nature and the potential for societal collapse.