The Misanthrope Robbed by the World

c. 1568

Johan Wierix after Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Associated Names
Johan Wierix

Artist, Flemish, 1549 - 1618 or after

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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

The image depicts a robed figure and a person trapped inside a sphere. The central feature shows a hooded figure walking in front of a windmill, while a smaller figure is partially caught in a round object with a sword protruding from it. The smaller figure reaches towards the larger figure. In the background, various figures are engaged in dynamic interactions, such as a cart with horses and soldiers, indicating motion and activity. The landscape includes hills and clouds in the sky, contributing to the mood. There is ornate script in an older language around the central circle, potentially conveying an allegorical or moral message.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Accession Number

    1964.8.438

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 1863, State only

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1965

  • Drolleries and Demons: Six Centuries of 'Fantastic' Prints, IBM Gallery, New York, NY, 1965, no. 19.

1967

  • When Reason Dreams: A Selection of Prints from Five Centuries Illustrating Artistic Concerns with the Imagination, the Fantastic and the Grotesque, University of South Florida, Tampa; Duke University, Durham, NC; University of Florida, Gainesville; and Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1967, no. 11, repro.

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. (Wieriex family, Zsuzsanna van Ruyven-Zeman author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 1863, state only.

Inscriptions

lower left, in image, in plate: .IH.W.; in sky at top center, in plate: Je porte dueil voijant le monde, / Qui en tant de fraudes abonde. (I wear mourning, seeing the world / That abounds in so many frauds.); in margin around image, in plate: De sulck draecht rou = om dat de weerelt is onghetrou, Die meeste ghebruijcken minst recht en reden. Weijnich leefter nou = also hij leuen sou, Men rooft men treckt elck steeckt vol gheueijsde seden. (He wears a sackcloth because the world is unfaithful, / Most people act without right nor reason, Few now live as one should live, / One robs, one grabs, everyone is full of feigned morals.) [translation by Wouter Bracke from Maarten Bassens and Joris van Grieken, eds., Bruegel in Black and White: The Complete Graphic Works. Brussels: KBR, 2019, p. 269, notes 5 and 6.]

Wikidata ID

Q65508810

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