The Misanthrope", or "The perfidy of the world" is an autograph painting by Pieter Bruegel, made with tempera on canvas around 1568, measuring 86 x 85 cm. and is kept in the National Galleries of Capodimonte.
Not all critics agree that the theme depicted concerns the misanthrope. For some, the composition would deal with heresy as evidenced by the old title of the painting, the "Heresy", attributed to him in the museum and kept active until the early twentieth century.
At the end of the sixteenth century the work was – we do not know from where – in Parma at the residence of Count Masi, to whom it was confiscated in 1611 by the Farnese. In 1680 it appeared catalogued in the inventories of Palazzo del Giardino, again in Parma. In 1734 it arrived in Naples together with the entire patrimony of the Farnese family.
