Pieter van der Heyden: Big Fish Eat Little Fish (1557)

(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

An engraving by the Flemish artist Pieter van der Heyden (1530-1572), after a design by the Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1530-1569). This print shows a Flemish / Dutch proverb in the most literal sense. A enormous fish is beached with many small and large fish tumbling out of its mouth and even the entire scene is filled with large fish eating smaller ones. In the boat in the foreground is foreground a man, accompanied by his son, who gestures toward the scene. The Latin and Dutch text at the bottom explains what the man is saying: "Siet Sone dit hebbe ick zeer langhe gheweten dat die groote vissen de cleijne eten" (= Look son, I have long known that the big fish eat the small). Engraving from 1557.