Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Mad Meg, 1562

Originally known as Dulle Griet/Dull Gret (which is also a medieval "super-gun" from Belgium), Mad Meg is a unique character of Finnish folklore. Gret is also a derogatory name given to any ill-tempered, shrewish woman - use it wisely. So the story goes, this demon-kickin' lady raided Hell itself and looted its riches along the way. Totally apocalyptic at first, but it has so many comic overtones when you try to wrap your head around the story and scenes within the piece. Upon initially viewing it, Mad Meg looks completely over-sized compared to the characters she shares the piece with, but Bruegel's pieces are usually viewed from above, which gives the feeling that she had already raided Hell and was escaping the uproar she left below. The thing I love here is that, especially for the time period, Meg has such power and she's clad in male armor...and with a weapon, no less. Underneath her armor is the usual haus-frau garb, but her different layers, both metaphorically and literally, give her such depth.

Light plays a great role in this piece, sweeping the gaze from the light source up in the right corner to the mouth of hell. The colors in the piece scream chaos and confusion, with each individual scene almost blending in with the others in one big, hellish mess. Bruegel portrays other strong women here, Meg's followers, in the scene directly to the right of Meg, fighting off demons themselves. His characters here are Bosch-esque, showing such perversions of God's creations much like in Hell, leaving me curious if he had a bit too much of the insane root. The castle wall metamorphosed into a face with a mouth gaping open as the entrance to hell is a prime example. Also indicative of Bosch are the deviations of religious symbols in the piece, like the eggs, which usually signify fertility but are all rotten now.

While the story of Mad Meg is worthy of a page in itself, the thing I loved about the background of this painting is the Dutch Revolt, or Eighty Years' War, going on during this period. The Dutch Protestants craved freedom of religion, but Charles V and, later, Philip II wanted only to defeat Protestantism. Bruegel's piece here includes some scenes of scathing political criticism, like the faceless soldiers venturing into hell itself and engaged in meaningless struggle (with a fish man... insane root, I'm telling you). To skip a history lecture I don't want to write, the revolt ended with the creation of the Dutch Republic - the first republic ever, but also the first one with the separation of church and state. Bruegel comments on the political state around him just as much as he illustrates a crazy Finnish folkloric tale in one big chaotic mess that somehow says so much in its crazy contents.