Avaritia (Avarice)
Production date
1556
Collection
Object number
1920,0216.1
Material

pen and grey-brown ink, contours incised

Inscription
Signed at lower right: brueghel 1556; inscribed at lower centre in sepia ink by a different hand: avaritia; in the margin in sepia ink by a different hand: Eere beleeftheyt schaemte noch godlyck vermaen, En siet die scrapende gierichhyt niet aen [Scraping Avarice sees neither honour nor courtesy, shame nor divine admonition]
Dimensions
29.8 cm x 22.8 cm

Series of seven preparatory drawings by Pieter Bruegel and seven engravings by Pieter van der Heyden.

A female personification seated at centre beside a coffer, into which a figure with reptile head pours money, a toad at her feet, a ramshackle hut behind, curious buildings and half-human creatures pursuing symbolic occupations, some of them shooting arrows at a suspended pouch with coins at left.

CC BY (Creative Commons 4.0)

Other artworks of this artist

The Painter and the Buyer
Desidia (Sloth)
The Descent of Christ into Limbo
The Last Judgment
Big Fish Eat Little Fish
Village Outside the Walls of a Fortress
Spring
Landscape with a fortified town
Mountain Landscape with River and Travellers
Bears in a forest
Avaritia (Avarice)
Dulle Griet
Twelve Proverbs
The Magpie on the Gallows
The Gooseherd
Summer