Envy, from the series The Seven Deadly Sins

In the Middle Ages, the virtues and the vices took the form of female personifications whose attributes signaled their identity. In this depiction of the vice Envy, Bruegel enriched the theme with motifs from daily life as well as with fantastical creations similar to those in the work of Hieronymous Bosch. The main figure of Envy sits in the lower foreground devouring her own heart, with her symbolic animal, the turkey, at her side. Around them are scenes illustrating the theme of envy, such as the two dogs fighting over a bone. As in his paintings, Bruegel’s imaginative depictions correlate in some fashion with contemporary proverbs and folklore, but their true meaning often eludes modern audiences, leaving us with appealing but inscrutable symbolic imagery. Thanks to engravings after his drawings, such as this one by Pieter van der Heyden, Bruegel’s influence was widespread in 16th-century Europe.