Poverty is Easier to Bear Than Luxury

c. 1592

Workshop of Hendrick Goltzius, after Karel van Mander I

Associated Names
Hendrick Goltzius

Related Artist, Dutch, 1558 - 1617

Karel van Mander I

Artist After, Netherlandish, 1548 - 1606

The image shows two figures. One is a standing older man wearing a cap and simple clothing, with long wavy hair. He is carrying a smaller figure on his back. The smaller figure appears to be a child or small adult, wearing minimal clothing. The standing figure has caricature-like facial features. Another figure is seated, dressed elaborately with a large garment and a wide-brimmed hat, lying or reclining at the bottom left. The background shows an architectural scene with a bridge and buildings, including a rounded tower with a pointed roof and arched doorways or windows. The style is detailed and rendered with precise linework, like a classic engraving.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving and letterpress on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    plate: 24.1 x 17.1 cm (9 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.)
    sheet: 39.5 x 27.3 cm (15 9/16 x 10 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2004.2.5

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 99, State i/iii

Associated Artworks

See all 6 artworks
The image shows three figures: one standing and two sitting. The standing figure is leaning forward with a walking stick, wearing a hooded garment. The two seated figures are interacting closely on a bench. The man on the left has curly hair and a wide-brimmed hat, while the man on the right wears a cap and holds a spherical object. In the background, there are trees and a thatched-roof building, suggesting a rural setting. The image is framed by a border with Latin text and a stamp at the bottom.

Do Not Spend Your Savings Too Soon

1590

Six Proverbs

1590

The image shows several figures dressed in detailed period clothing. One central seated figure holds a small chest or box and wears a ruffled collar, an elaborate hairstyle, and a hat. Surrounding this figure are others also dressed in historical clothing, with feathered hats, cloaks, and puffed sleeves. A cherub-like figure stands on the right holding a staff or rod. The background features a patterned floor, a brick wall, wooden beams, and scales. In the foreground, there are objects like scales and cylindrical items on the ground.

The Scales of Marriage

1590

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Château de la Roche-Guyon, France (part of an album)1; (Paul Prouté S.A., Paris); purchased by NGA, 2003.
1 The album was bound in vellum, with "Abraham" on the cover and "Ligeoys" on the back cover. The Château de la Roche-Guyon stamp was on some of the pages, which included a variety of northern mannerist prints by Goltzius, Matham, Saenredam, and others. It was apparently dismantled by Prouté for sale of some of the prints to the NGA.

Associated Names

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 Hertzberge

1993

  • The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (Karel van Mander, Marjolein Leesberg, author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 99, state i/iii.

Inscriptions

lower left, in image, in plate: 5; below image, in plate: Turgentem omento, pinguiq[ue] abdomine fartam, / Et spurco putore grauem, nidore petulcam / Haud leue propter opes onus aspernatur, et odit / Baiulus, vt luteo distentam sumine scropham. / Frugi Panperiem qu[a]e nullo omeratur omaso, / Nec gazis Cr[a]esi, nec Crassi dote grauatam / Tollit ouans humeris, non hanc Semeleia proles / Vino, non epulis Cerealis pressit Eleusis. (A porter refuses to carry a fat pig of a woman, bulging belly stuffed, heavy with a filthy stench, redolent with the odour of roasting, as she is a heavy burden because of her wealth and he hates her like a sow with a crammed pink pork chest. Thrifty poverty, burdened neither by a single haggis, nor Croesus' treatures, nor is heavy with Crassus' riches, he jubilantly takes upon his shoulders because Semele's child [Bacchus] has not made it heavy with wine, nor has Eleusis with Ceres' meals.); in letterpress, below plate: Die broodt-droncken weelde, swaerlyvich en vet, / Die kittelt altemet, soo haren dragher: / Dat hyse verwerpt, hem lydende veel bet, / Met armoede, want die is licht en magher. (This drunken glutton is a Load of grease, / Shee tickles me full sore, and kills mee clean, / Wherefore i'le throwe her downe and for my case, / Take up this other that is light, and lean.)
[translations by Jan Bloemendal in The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700. (Karel van Mander, Marjolein Leesberg, author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1999, no. 99, p. lxxvi.]

Watermarks

coat of arms with three lily flowers (Briquet 1841)

Wikidata ID

Q76360454

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