When Your Purse Is Empty, You Eat Bones Not Bacon

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 depicts four individuals seated closely together on a bench, each engaged in separate activities. The first person on the left is chewing on a bone next to a sack. The second person in the middle has a hood and long beard. The third person is looking down while holding a piece of fabric or meat. The fourth person on the right is clawing at their knee. Each person has distinct facial features and hairstyles, mostly hidden under hoods or caps. A small dog is at their feet. The background shows an architectural setting with a window and arch. The scene is framed with a decorative border, below which is inscribed text in a classical style.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving and letterpress on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

  • Dimensions

    plate: 24 x 17.2 cm (9 7/16 x 6 3/4 in.)
    sheet: 39.7 x 27.4 cm (15 5/8 x 10 13/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2004.2.6

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 100, 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. 100, state i/iii.

Inscriptions

lower left, in image, in plate: 6; lower left, in image, in plate: C. Mander Inve.; below image in plate: Dum vestirentur prima lanugine mal[a]e, / Tum vigor [a]etatis Trieterica, et orgia amabat; / Nunc deploramus vacu[a]e eheu damna crumen[a]e, / Futilibus querimur transactaq[ue] tempora nugis. Tunc pernas largè, nunc arida rodimus ossa, / Tun Cr[a]esi, et Crassi, nunc Iri cardine verso. / H[a]ec rota Fortun[a]e non est, v[a]esania nostra est, / Dicere, quain miserum est, habui, quain botrus amarus. (When our jaws were first covered with down, that vital age loved triennial Bacchus banquets. Now we regret, ah, the disadvantage of the purse being empty and complain about the time spent on useless small talk. Then we chewed on hams aplenty, now on dry bones, then the wheel revolved around Croesus and Crassus, now aroudn Irus. I must say: this is not the wheel of fortune, it is our own insanity. How wretched it is, how sour the grapes.); below plate, in letterpress: Een ijdel buijdel maecket hert t'onvreden / Den tijt voorleden, moeten wij beclaghen / Doen wij van het speck al te diepe sneden / Thammetgen is op wij moeten thieltgen knaghen. (An empty purse will make a sorry heart, / For to amend whats past the time is gone. / Wee ranted high, which makes us now to smart, / When the meats off wee're forst to pick the bone.)
[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. 98, pp. lxxvi-lxxvii.]

Watermarks

Briquet 9324

Wikidata ID

Q76360458

You may be interested in

Loading Results