Dangers and Vices Accompanying Wealth

Art Historical Context

This engraving from 1563 captures a timeless moral warning about the pitfalls of prosperity. Designed by the Dutch Renaissance artist Maerten van Heemskerck and expertly engraved by Philip Galle, the print belongs to a tradition of allegorical series that flourished in Northern Europe during the Reformation. It vividly illustrates how wealth can invite corruption, excess, and spiritual peril, reflecting humanist concerns with virtue amid growing mercantile wealth in the Netherlands. The medium of engraving on laid paper was ideal for spreading such messages widely. Unlike paintings, prints could be produced in multiples and distributed affordably, allowing these cautionary images to reach merchants, scholars, and the educated public. Van Heemskerck’s dynamic compositions, translated through Galle’s precise linework, create a crowded scene rich in symbolic detail—figures personifying vices surround a central embodiment of wealth, inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationship to material success. Today housed in the National Gallery of Art as a gift from the Leo Steinberg estate, the work stands as a fascinating example of collaborative printmaking and 16th-century moral discourse. Its intricate details reward close looking, revealing how artists used visual storytelling to explore ethical questions that remain relevant centuries later.

About the Artist

Philip Galle, after Maerten van Heemskerck

**Philip Galle (1537–1612)** was a leading Netherlandish engraver, designer, and print publisher whose reproductive prints helped disseminate the works of major 16th-century masters across Europe. Born in Haarlem, he trained as a pupil of the humanist and engraver Dirck Volkertsz. Coornhert. In Haarlem, Galle engraved several compositions by the local painter Maerten van Heemskerck, establishing ...