When Dull Gret appeared in the inventory of Antwerp merchant Niclaes Jonghelinck in 1566, it was already notorious for its wild subject and biting satire. Painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1561, it stands out as one of the few works in which Bruegel gave the starring role to a woman, and not just any woman: a peasant leading an army into the jaws of Hell itself. The painting’s Dutch title, Dulle Griet, became a byword for unruly women in the Low Countries, and its riotous imagery has sparked debate ever since about whether it mocks, celebrates, or warns against female boldness. At the center, Gret storms forward in apron and armor, wielding a sword and clutching household loot, as she and her companions plunder the mouth of Hell.

Demons, monsters, and grotesque faces swarm around them, their forms drawn from folk tales and the margins of medieval manuscripts. The chaos is thick with symbolism: broken dishes and stolen goods evoke greed and folly, while the burning landscape behind hints at the wages of such vices. Bruegel’s hellscape teems with invention, rivaling the nightmarish visions of Hieronymus Bosch, yet the focus on a peasant woman as hero—or antihero—makes this scene uniquely Bruegel’s own. The exact commission for Dull Gret is unknown, but it was likely painted for a private collector with a taste for the fantastic and the moralizing.

After its early appearance in Jonghelinck’s collection, its whereabouts were uncertain for centuries, until it resurfaced in the 19th century and entered the collection of the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp, where it hangs today. The painting’s bold satire and crowded composition mark a high point in Bruegel’s early career, as he shifted from printmaking to large-scale panel paintings that dissected human folly with both humor and horror.