Bruegel the Elder’s Big Fish Eat Little Fish (1556)

Pieter Bruegel’s Big Fish Eat Little Fish depicts a surreal, cannibalistic feeding frenzy on the waterfront: an unfortunate turn of events for a father-son fishing trip. A fearsomely large fish has been heaved upon the beach. From its gaping mouth, as well as a gash being carved in its midsection, spill forth two torrents of seemingly ravenous marine life. On land and at sea, sizable fish flounder after their inferiors, while eels chase eels, and some become meals for an assortment of predatory mollusks. The Flemish description below this scene, which appears in Pieter van der Heyden’s 1557 engraving, puts a colloquial spin on a popular proverb: “Look son, I have long known that the big fish eat the small.” And aboard their shared boat, the boy gestures to the madness in tandem with his father, their arms perfectly framing the isolated word of Latin: ecce. Behold.

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