The Blind Beggar Tricked by Lazarillo
Thomas Wyck
n.d.
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 12.7 × 11.4 cm (5 × 4 1/2 in.); Sheet: 24.1 × 19.1 cm (9 1/2 × 7 9/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
69767
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Thomas Wyck illustrated several scenes from the anonymous Spanish picaresque novella, The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of his Fortunes and Adversities. Treated as a heretical tract in Catholic Spain (where the Spanish Inquisition was still active), the tale was also published in Antwerp in 1555. In this etching, the unscrupulous protagonist is apprenticed to a blind man, on whom he practices the arts of stealing and subterfuge.