A Man and the Devil Filling a Sack with Money and Setting Up a Statue of Hope, from Allegory of the Misuse of Worldly Property
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 21.6 × 16 cm (8 9/16 × 6 5/16 in.); sheet: 22.8 × 17 cm (9 × 6 3/4 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
268050
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This print series uses symbolic imagery to criticize the love and pursuit of worldly and material goods. A well-to-do man in a white neck ruff is repeatedly tempted by bags of gold presented to him by a blindfolded cupid and a horned demon. In the first print, the Devil sits before an easel, painting the man’s heart with images of women and jewels, while a woman ties a cord around the man’s ankle, binding him to the sin of lust. In the second, Cupid has been transformed from a symbol of pure lov...