Humouring Bruegel: humour and the art of Pieter Bruegel the Elder considered through the 1557 print Big Fish Eat Little Fish

Recent scholarship on humour in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Big Fish Eat Little Fish (1557) claims single interpretation of meaning yet this definitiveness is contradicted by some finding the work funny and others not. Seemingly in common in the interpretations is an acceptance of the superiority theory of humour most prevalent in Bruegel’s day. By approaching with an alternate understanding of how visual humour is experienced, the humorous characteristics found through Bruegel’s oeuvre are explored and alternate interpretations of Big Fish Eat Little Fish presented which embrace meaning through contradiction and paradox. These demonstrate how the works can be simultaneously humorous and meaningful without an expectation of singular interpretations.