Sycophancy
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In modern English, sycophant denotes an insincere flatterer and refers to someone practising sycophancy.
Lysias, by the French sculptor Jean Dedieu (c. 1645–1727)
Uriah Heep, from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, is synonymous with sycophancy.
Mark Rutte, whose adaptive diplomatic style has frequently drawn both praise as a pragmatist and criticism from political opponents invoking labels of sycophancy.
Botticelli's illustration of Dante's Inferno shows insincere flatterers grovelling in excrement in the second pit of the eighth circle.
Fig sign
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The fig sign is a mildly obscene gesture that uses a thumb wedged in between two fingers. The gesture is most commonly used to ward off the evil eye, insult someone, or deny a request. It has been use
Sycophancy
…Eleventh Edition listed these and other explanations, including that the making of false accusations was an insult to the accused in the nature of showing the fig, an "obscene gesture of phallic significance" or, alternatively that the false charges were often so insubstantial as to not amount to the worth of a…
The fig sign
Goya, Witches' Flight. A man folds his fingers into fig sign as a protective gesture.
A golden good fortunes pendant shaped as a fig sign from Hellenistic Period (Eskişehir Archaeology Museum)