The Battle of the Moneybags and the Strongboxes

Pieter van der Heyden

Artist, Netherlandish, active c. 1551/1572

Joannes Galle

Publisher, Flemish, probably 1600 - 1676

Printed with fine black lines and hatching, creatures made of fabric sacks with human heads, arms, and legs and wooden chests and barrels with limbs are all dressed in armor and battle in this horizontal engraving. Spears, lances, and swords pierce bags and chests alike, and coins spill out of many of them. The characters are crowded as they fight in front of a couple of puffs of smoke in the background to the right and a sea of upright spears to the left. The fighting is confused, with severed limbs lying about and one soldier fighting with a dagger slicing his helmet. A printed signature in the lower right corner reads, P. Bruegel Inuet, Ioan Galle excudit.” An inscription in the bottom center of the image reads, “DIVITLAE FACIVNT FVRES. Multos perdidit aurem et argenium, Eccli 8.5. LES RICHESSES FONT DES LARRONS. L'or et l'argent en a destruit plusieurs. RYCKDOM MAECKT DIEVEN./ Goudt en silver heeft vek bedrove.” Text in three columns under the image reads, “Quid modo diuitie, quid fului vasta metalli Congeries, nummis arca referta nouis, Illecebres inter tantas, atq agmina furum, Inditium cunctis efferus vncus erit, Preda facit furem, feruens mala cuncta ministrat, Impetus, et spolijs apta rapina feris. Wel aen ghij Spaerpotten, Tonnen, en Kisten. Tis al om gelt en goet, dit striden en twisten. Al seet men u ooc anders, willet niet ghelouen. Daerom vueren wij den haec die ons noijt en miste. Men soeckt wel actie om ons te uerdoouen, Maer men souwer niet krijgen, waerder niet te rooven.”

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession

    1964.8.423

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 33, State iii/iv

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

William H. Schab; purchased 1962 by Lessing J. Rosenwald; gift to NGA, 1964.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • Drolleries and Demons: Six Centuries of 'Fantastic' Prints, IBM Gallery, New York, NY, 1965, no. 16.

1971

  • The Indignant Eye, Boston University, 1971, no. 12.

2000

  • The Fantastic in Renaissance Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2000.

Bibliography

1908

  • Bastelaer, Rene van. Les estampes de Peter Bruegel l'ancien. Brussels: G. van Oest et Cie, 1908.

1993

  • The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (Pieter Bruegel, Nadine Orenstein author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 33, state iii/iv.

Inscriptions

lower center, in image, in plate: DIVITIAE FACIVNT FVRES. / Multos perdidit aurem et argenium / Eccli 8.5. // LES RICHESSES FONT DES LARRONS. / L'or et l'argent en a destruit plusieurs. // RYCKDOM MAECKT DIEVEN. / Goudt en silver heeft vek bedorve; lower right, in image in plate: P. Bruegel Inuet. / Ioan Galle excudit.; in lower margin, in plate: Quid modo diuiti[a]e, quid fului vasta metalli / Congeries, nummis arca referta nouis, // Illecebres inter tantas, atq[ue] agmina furum / Inditium cunctis efferus vncus erit, // Pr[a]eda facit furem, feruens mala cuncta ministrat / Impetus, et spolijs apta rapina feris. (The savage grappling hook will reveal to all the riches, the vast pile of yellow metal, the strongbox stuffed with new coins among these great enticements and the ranks of thieves. Booty makes the thief, the assault that serves all evil helps him, and so does the pillage good for fierce spoils.) // Wel aen ghij Spaerpotten, Tonnen, en Kisten. / Tis al om gelt en goet, dit striden en twisten. // Al seet men u ooc anders, willet niet ghelouen. / Daerom vueren[n] wij den haec die ons noijt en miste[n] // Men soeckt wel actie om ons te uerdoouen, / Maer men souwer niet krijgen, waerder niet te rooven. (Forward you piggy banks, barrels, and chests. It's all for money and goods, this fighting and quarreling. Even if they tell you something different, don't believe it. That is why we carry that hook, which has never forsaken us, on our banners. They are taking action to quiet us down, but there would be no battle if there were nothing to steal.)
[translations from Nadine Orenstein, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 253.]

Wikidata ID

Q65511673

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