"Do Not Turn Back When You Arrive at the End" [fol. 26 verso / 27 recto]

1512/1514

French early 16th Century

Associated Names
French early 16th Century

Artist

This is a drawing of an allegorical medieval theme. The artwork depicts a scene filled with symbolism. On the left side, a house labeled "Domus Hominis Prudentis" (House of the Wise Man) is shown, with figures labeled as "Cupiditas Vitæ," "Medicus," "Pharmacopoia," and "Ratio." The right side features mythical figures such as "Vir," "Prudes," and "Finis Vitæ." This side includes a mythical creature, a somber figure in a chariot, a figure labeled "Saturnus," and an armored knight labeled "Mars."

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pen and brown ink with watercolor on two joined sheets of laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner

  • Dimensions

    overall: 16.4 x 21.7 cm (6 7/16 x 8 9/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2006.11.55

  • Series Title

    Speculum principis (Mirror for Princes)

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Sale, London, Sotheby's, 13 July 1937, lot 64); (sale, London, Sotheby's, 15-17 November 1937, lot 546); (sale, London, Maggs Bros., Ltd., catalogue 709, 1941, no. 30); (purchased by William H. Schab Gallery via Paul Graupe); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York, by 1973; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1973

  • Woodner Collection II: Old Master Drawings from the XV to the XVIII Century, William H. Schab Gallery, New York and tour, 1973-74, no. 34 (illustrated).

2006

  • Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006 - 2007.

2009

  • Renaissance to Revolution: French Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500-1800. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009, 20-23, no. 2d (color).

2017

  • The Woodner Collections: Master Drawings from Seven Centuries, NGA, 2017.

Bibliography

1941

  • Maggs Brothers. French Books and Prints, Incunabula, Bibles, and Bindings. Catalogue no. 709. London, 1941: no. 30.

1942

  • Saxl, Fritz. "A Spiritual Encyclopedia of the Later Middle Ages." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 5 (1942): 82-134.

1974

  • Butler, Joseph T. "Old Master Drawings from the Woodner Collection II." Connoisseur 186 (1974): 56-57.

1983

  • Massing, Jean Michel. "The Influence of Erasmus: Text and image in a French pre-emblematic manuscript." Manuscripts in the Fifty Years after the Invention of Printing (Colloquium Paper at the Warburg Institute) 1983: 75-82.

1987

  • Massing, Jean Michel. "The Illustrations of Lucian's Imago Vitae Aulicae." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 50 (1987): 215-16.

1990

  • Massing, Jean Michel. Du texte à l'image. La Calomnie d'Apelle et son iconographie. Strasbourg, 1990: 48, 67, 81, 93, 284-285, no. 8A, pl. 8A.

1994

  • Colenbrander, H.Th. "Een serie tekeningen naar Erasmus' Adagia: Jean Perréal, de Maître aux Pieds-Bots en de Meester van de Legende van de H. Egidius." in Boeken in de late Middeleeuwen. Hermans and van der Hoek, eds. Groningen, 1994: 211-220.

1995

  • Massing, Jean Michel. Erasmian Wit and Proverbial Wisdom. An Illustrated Moral Compendium for François 1er. London, 1995: 91-92, reprod. 174-175.

  • The Touch of the Artist: Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1995: 133, 135, 137, fig. 6.

Inscriptions

Inscribed in pen and brown ink on the house at upper left: Domus Hominis Prudentis..; the figures standing at left labeled: Cupiditas Vite, Medicus, and Pharmacopehela; the woman with a spear at center labeled: Ratio; inscribed in the wheels on the cart on which she stands; Vir and Prudens; on the chariot at upper right: Saturnus; on the coffin-shaped cart at right center: Finis Vite; and on the chariot at lower right: Mars

Wikidata ID

Q64570847

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