The Misanthrope Robbed by the World, c. 1568

Not on View

series Title

Flemish Proverbs

Medium

engraving

Credit Line

Rosenwald Collection

Catalogue Raisonné

New Hollstein, no. 1863, State only

Accession Number

1964.8.438

Artists / Makers

Johan Wierix (artist) Flemish, 1549 - 1618 or after

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (artist after) Netherlandish, c. 1525/1530 - 1569

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

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.]

Exhibition History

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.