Scaramucci is being widely quoted for invoking an old Italian saying, but he didn’t say it the way I learned it. It’s not “A fish stinks from the head down.” It’s: “A fish rots from the head down.” — The stink is merely a result, only a symptom, of the rot.
Perhaps it’s a useful metaphorical distinction to consider from our contemporary political context…
Meanwhile, here’s some art history for all you “culture vultures” and your viewing pleasure:
This is a typical Dutch genre painting, that was likely marketed to a prosperous middle class family. Note the ornate carved front of the kitchen counter, depicting Venus and a group of cherubs cavorting around a large dolphin — repeating the painting’s theme of women and “fish.”
Dutch paintings are loaded with allegorical meanings that are well worth studying. They use a symbolic language and systems of archetypes that still show up in our current affairs, if you’ll pardon the expression.
If you’ve never heard of a “cod piece” you might want to look that up on your own, just for fun...
The older fish peddler exhibits his wares, ahem, to the young woman, who looks at the fish, while he is gazing at her with longing. Her right hand is resting over the heart of a dead male mallard (ducks were a symbol of marital fidelity, said to mate for life) but she is tempted by the fish.
Hmm… Wonder what’s going on in that house after dinner is over?
A cabbage leaf has dropped to the floor in the foreground, directly in front of the Venus figure in the bas relief, like a reference to the fig leaves of Eden’s garden, while a cat watches the tempting scene attentively. While dogs in Dutch paintings usually symbolized loyalty and fidelity, cats often refer to the curiosity, especially the sexual curiosity, of women.
These paintings were used to amuse, as well as moralize and caution. In Dutch genre paintings, as in Trumpian politics, it’s important to pay attention to the details and the “blatant nuances” of it all.