Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca 1525-1569), Dulle Griet (Mad Meg), ca 1562, oil on wood 117 x 162 cm, detail 10.

Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp. See next pictures for more details.

In support of the action of Dulle Griet, a troop of women are looting a house and at the same time managing to handle in a battle turmoil an army of devilish monsters.

The true meaning of the painting with the apparent imbalance between Griet’s and her followers’ fight and the invincibility of Hell remains ambiguous and is still matter of discussion. However, a saying from a book of proverbs published in Antwerp in 1568, may elucidate the painting’s mystery, Bruegel thus simply making fun of noisy or aggressive women: “One woman makes a din, two women a lot of trouble, three an annual market, four a quarrel, five an army, and against six the Devil himself has no weapon.”