Dull Gret

Dull Gret, also known as Mad Meg, is an oil-on-panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder showing a peasant woman leading a band of women who pillage a house while she advances, sword in hand, toward the mouth of Hell. The name comes from Flemish folklore, where "Griet" was a disparaging term for any bad-tempered woman, and the figure embodies that idea. Bruegel pokes fun at noisy, aggressive women, yet he also condemns greed: the group, already laden with possessions, is ready to storm Hell itself in search of more. The scene echoes a Flemish proverb about a woman who could plunder Hell and come back unharmed, and a book of proverbs printed in Antwerp in 1568 contains a saying very close to its spirit.

The painting owes much to Hieronymus Bosch, visible in the landscape filled with demons and monsters that stand for the sins punished there. Griet wears male armour, a breastplate, a mailed glove and a metal cap, and her military costume is mocked by the monster beside her who raises a drawbridge. A 2018 restoration established the date as 1563, shortly after Bruegel moved to Brussels, since the signature and date had previously been illegible. It is thought to have been intended for a series, probably alongside works such as The Fall of the Rebel Angels and The Triumph of Death, given their close compositional and stylistic links.

Its later history is also notable. It passed through the collection of Rudolf II, was looted by Swedish troops in 1648 and resurfaced in Stockholm in 1800. Fritz Mayer van den Bergh found it in 1897 at an auction in Cologne, where he bought it for a minimal sum, only later discovering who had painted it. It is now held by the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp. Griet has since appeared in other art forms, from comics to theatre, which shows how much this image of a reckless, defiant woman continues to fascinate.

Painter

Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Date

1561

Medium

oil paint, panel, oak panel

Dimensions

117 × 162 cm

Museum

Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp

Genre

religious art

Depicts

giant, hell

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