The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Interpretation and Analysis)

The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish
Source: The MET

Today, I want to talk about a very strange engraving: The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish. According to the MET, the title of the print refers to a Latin proverb, which refers to the universal tendency of the powerful to prey on the weak.

Although the meaning of the proverb is fairly obvious, the print itself is rather bizarre. The focal point is a massive fish, beached upon the shore. A man with a large knife slits the fish open, revealing dozens of smaller fish stuffed inside. The background is dotted with fantastical images of fish devouring each other and other, stranger creatures such as a flying fish and a fish walking on human legs. In the distance, the faint outline of a city is visible, its docks crowded with the masts of ships.

The visual style of the engraving is clearly inspired by the work of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch. In fact, the knife in the center of The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish is a direct reference the hellscape in his masterpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights. The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish owes much to Bosch’s style, which is quite distinctive. In an art history course that I took many moons ago, I learned that some art historians speculate that Bosch’s style and use of fantastical imagery, may be inspired by the margin illustrations often found in hand-copied Medieval manuscripts. If you Google margin illustrations in Medieval books, you’ll immediately see what I’m talking about. These often bizarre illustrations were clearly a way for the monks and scholars who copied the manuscripts to entertain themselves, express their creativity, or simply communicate inside jokes. It is fitting that, as the practice of copying books by hand fell by the wayside, the tradition of these margin drawings found their way to the new medium for distributing information: print.

Almost by definition, engravings and prints were meant to be widely distributed. The development of printing meant that for the first time in Western history, copies of texts and illustrations were accessible to just about anyone with a little disposable income. Publishers naturally sought to commission and sell prints that would be appealing to the largest possible audience, meaning that pieces like The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish were aimed at everyday, ordinary people. This represents a major movement in the history of art, as previously almost all artistic output was created for the Church or the wealthy upper echelons of society.

One can easily imagine how The Big Fish Eat the Little Fish would appeal to ordinary people living in the 16th century. The visual richness and complexity of the piece would offer entertainment and interest to a person who probably could not afford many books or pieces of art. However, it is the underlying message of the universality of inequity that would have appealed most to contemporary audiences and continues to appeal to modern viewers.

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.