The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

1585

Adriaen Collaert after Hans Bol

Associated Names
Adriaen Collaert

Artist, Flemish, Flemish, 1560 - 1618

Jan Sadeler I

Publisher, Netherlandish, 1550 - 1600

Hans Bol

Artist After, Flemish, Flemish, 1534 - 1593

This print displays a rural scene with a medieval town or village seen from a high vantage point. In the center, there is a castle with turrets surrounded by buildings with thatched roofs. The horizon line is in the upper third of the image, showing more buildings and trees fading into distant hills and a body of water with the faint outlines of ships. At the bottom, people are shown engaging in activities like picking fruit and conversing around a tall tree on the left. There are several ladders propped against the tree, and piles of round fruit below it. In the distance, there are other trees with ladders against them. In the sky above, a set of scales is depicted in a small circle.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to platemark): 15.5 × 20.9 cm (6 1/8 × 8 1/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1964.8.368

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 234, State only

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(William H. Schab, New York); purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], 1962; gift to NGA, 1964.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2019

  • Through a Glass Darkly: Allegory & Faith in Netherlandish Prints from Lucas van Leyden to Rembrandt, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 2019, no. 65, repro.

Bibliography

1949

  • Hollstein, F.W.H. et al. German engravings, etchings and woodcuts ca. 1400-1700. 8 vols. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1954-1868. Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700. Vols. I-XV, XVIII, XIX. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger.

1993

  • The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (The Collaert Dynasty, Ann Diels and Marjolein Leesburg, authors). Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel: Sound & Vision Publishers, 2005: Part II, no. 234, state only; (Hans Bol, Ursula Mielke, author). Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel: Sound & Vision Publishers, 2015: Part I, no. 80.

Inscriptions

lower center, in plate, in image: .1.5.8.5.; lower right, in plate, in image: .H. Bol. Inu A.C. fec Sadl .exc; below image, in plate: Frugifera eximijs offertur laudibus arbor / Quae tempestivos dat fructus grata colono. / Vindice sed merito sterilis ruit icta bipenni. / Saepe tamen precibus differtur poena malorum. Luc. 13. (The fruitful tree which graciously confers seasonable fruits on the husbandman, is shown high praise. But the barren one, having justly been struck by the vengeful ax, falls to ruin. Yet often is the punishment of evildoers deferred through prayers of supplication. Luke 13. [translation from Melion, Walter S. and James Clifton_Through a Glass Darkly: Allegory & Faith in Nethlerlandish Prints from Lucas van Leyden to Rembrandt._Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, 2019, p.152.])

Wikidata ID

Q65506466

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