Dull Gret

A restoration finished in 2018 finally settled the date of this panel at 1563, just after Bruegel had moved to Brussels. It shows Dulle Griet, Mad Meg, a woman in armour with a sword and a bundle of loot under her arm, striding toward the flaming mouth of Hell while grotesque creatures swarm around her. Behind her a crowd of women storm a monster's house. It comes out of a Flemish saying that a certain kind of woman could plunder in front of Hell and come back unharmed. Bruegel is partly mocking the loud, grasping figure of the shrew, and partly warning about greed, since Griet is already loaded with stuff and still charging in for more. The whole world here glows a sick orange-red, painted before anyone had the word for the kind of nightmare it looks like.