Avarice (Avaritia) from The Seven Deadly Sins
Original title: Avarice (Avaritia) from The Seven Deadly Sins
kurzbeschreibung
Pieter Bruegel the Elder made the engraving Avarice (Avaritia) in 1558 as one of his Seven Deadly Sins. The print presents greed in an allegorical scene crowded with small episodes about what this sin brings in its wake.
Description
A woman enthroned on a chair holds a bowl full of gold coins: she is greed itself. On the left, starving and destitute people appear in a settlement; on the right, figures feast on food and drink. Further episodes in the distance show how greed damages the environment and other people. The crowded layout lives from countless details, drawn in the exact linear style typical of the Renaissance.
Context
Bruegel produced this print in 1558, while he was working in Antwerp for the publisher Hieronymus Cock. It belongs to a series of seven devoted to the deadly sins. Moral subjects of this kind were widespread in the sixteenth-century Netherlands and addressed an educated, well-off public. Bruegel combined religious teaching with satirical observation of everyday life.
Impact
The dense web of detail draws the eye deep into the picture and invites repeated looking; the contrasts of poverty and excess make the moral point keenly felt. Precise draughtsmanship and the tight rows of figures create an atmosphere that unsettles and holds attention at once.
Technique
For this engraving the lines were cut into a copper plate and then printed. The present impression is the first of two states. Its black-and-white reproduction emphasizes the delicate linework and the sculptural modeling of the figures.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)