Caption: (Father bird) "My, my, what a job! To which one
should I
give this little titbit?"
(Mother bird): "A small slice each, father; and by the way, I
think they've got tapeworm"
Iconological explanation: this picture is really rich in symbols.
The subject is, once more, the system of governmental subsidies.
The cuckoos are the Dutch orchestras, each doing their best to
push the others aside. There are two tiny cuckoos, representing
early music (the one that sings the Summer Canon, the earliest
piece of polyphonic music) and rock music ("pop" - from "popular"
- is the Dutch equivalent for "rock music")
Father Bird is Job (sic) de Ruyter, at the time chairman of the
Council of the Arts (Raad voor de Kunst), a board with an
important advisory function. Mother Bird is Hedy d'Ancona, at
the time secretary of the Arts & such. She wields the
