Bruegel himself made changes to his own compositions that might give us clues about his perspective. Like other 16th-century masters, he constructed his paintings painstakingly on wood panels, layer by layer. He started with a light-colored foundational surface, known as the ground, made of chalk and animal glue, on which he would sketch out his composition. Later, he would paint using oils.

In the center foreground of the painting, “The Battle Between Carnival and Lent” we see festivalgoers celebrating on one side and pious observers of lent on the other. They are engaged in a kind of jousting match. A rotund man holding a pig on a stick faces off with an austere penitent, holding a baker’s peel on which there are two fish.

If we look at an image of this painting made with infrared rays, though, we see that instead of the two fish, Bruegel painted a cross — a symbol of the church. He later removed the cross and added the fish, a traditional food served during the festival of Lent. But fish are also symbols of Christ, so it could just be a more subtle reference to the church.