Everyman

c. 1558

Pieter van der Heyden after Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Associated Names
Pieter van der Heyden

Artist, Netherlandish, active c. 1551/1572

Hieronymus Cock

Publisher, Netherlandish, 1518 - 1570

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Artist After, Netherlandish, c. 1525/1530 - 1569

This is a detailed print of a cluttered scene with various bags, baskets, containers, and strange objects piled on the ground outside of a building. Some of the objects include a chessboard, a book, a bucket, dice, playing cards, scissors, cushions, and other tools. Three men seem to be rummaging through this pile, opening sacks and baskets and bending down to look in them. In the center, one of the men seems to hold a lantern as he walks among the objects, looking down. On the left, stairs seem to lead up to the building. Two people stand on these stairs, seeming engaged in tug-of-war with a long strip of cloth. Next to them, on the wall of the building, seems to be a poster showing a man standing among several broken and discarded objects, with a line of text at the bottom. In the background on the right, there is an open, outdoor area with a tree, a distant building, and a tall fence with several tents in front of it. A large army seems to have gathered around the tents, some holding weapons and some holding flags. Below the print are several lines of text.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1964.8.399

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 35, State i/ii

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1989

  • Image and Word, Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Gallery, St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, 1989.

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. 35, state i/ii.

Inscriptions

upper left, below picture, in plate: NIEMA[N]T. EN. KENT. HE[M]. SELVE[N] (Nobody knows himself); on hems of coats of five foreground figures and beneath men with lanterns at upper right, in plate: ELCK (Everyman); on bag at center, in plate: NEMO NON (not no one); lower right, in image, in plate: H. COCK. EXCUD. CUM. PRIVILEG; lower margin, in plate: Nemo non quaerit passim sua commoda, Nemo / Non qu[a]erit sese' cunctis in rebus agendis, // Nemo non inhiat privatis undique lucris, / Hic trahit, ille trahit, cunctis amor unus habendi est. (No one does not seek his own advantage everywhere, no one does not seek himself in all that he does, no one does not look everywhere for private gain. This one pulls, that one pulls, all have the same love of possession.) [translation from Nadine Orenstein, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 166.]

Wikidata ID

Q65512403

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