Temperance

published 1559

Philip Galle after Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Associated Names
Philip Galle

Artist, Netherlandish, 1537 - 1612

Hieronymus Cock

Publisher, Netherlandish, 1518 - 1570

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

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

This is a drawing of an allegorical scene featuring various activities and figures under a night sky with a large moon and stars. In the foreground, figures are engaged in scholarly and creative tasks, including reading, writing, and playing instruments. In the center, a character in robes and a crown-like hat gestures towards the viewer. Architectural and theatrical elements suggest a mix of a stage and a workshop or academy. Various symbolic objects like scrolls and globes fill the space. The scene depicts human endeavors with detailed costumes and expressions. The drawing is monochromatic with fine line work and shading.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 22.4 x 28.8 cm (8 13/16 x 11 5/16 in.)
    sheet: 22.7 x 29.3 cm (8 15/16 x 11 9/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.2115

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    New Hollstein, no. 315, State i/ii

  • Series Title

    The Seven Virtues

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, May 7-9, 1928, lot 264); purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA (Lugt 1760b); gift to NGA, 1943.

Associated Names

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. (Philips Galle, Manfred Sellink and Marjolein Leesberg, authors). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1996-, no. 315, state i/ii.

Inscriptions

lower center, on the hem of the central figure's clothes, in plate: TEMPERANTIA (Temperance); lower right, in image, in plate: BRVEGEL; lower margin, in plate: VIDENDVM, VT NEC VOLVPTATI DEDITI PRODIGI ET LVXVRIOSI / APPAREAMVS, NEC AVARA TENACITATE SORDIDI AVT OBSCVRI EXISTAMVS (We must look to it that, in the devotion to sensual pleasures, we do not become wasteful and luxuriant, but also that we do not, because of miserly greed, live in filth and ignorance) [translation from Nadine Orenstein, ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Drawings and Prints. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2001, p. 191.]

Wikidata ID

Q64963000

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