The Topsy-Turvy World is a 1559 painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder that depicts the literal meanings of Dutch proverbs. proverbs - "an encyclopedia of all human wisdom collected under a jester's cap" - includes more than 100 scenes-metaphors, through which folk wit ridiculed the vanity and stupidity of many human undertakings. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, also known as the “Peasant” (Pieter Bruegel de Oude>,: ca. 1525 - 1569) is a South Dutch painter and graphic artist, the most famous and significant of the artists who bore this name. A master of landscape and genre scenes, neither have been forgotten. With great artistic power, Bruegel presents a picture of the absurdity, weakness, stupidity of man.