Art Institute of Chicago
The Money Devil
Workshop of Germain Hoyau and Olivier Truschet (French, 16th c.)
- Date
- second half of the 16th century
- Medium
- Woodcut in black on cream laid paper
- Culture
- France
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
An affordable popular print aimed at a broad audience, this woodcut is a humorous but stinging satire of humanity’s unbridled lust for wealth. At the center a monstrous creature stands on top of a chest of gold coins, holding money-filled purses and a spiked iron poker. People from different ranks of society—popes, cardinals, bishops, and monks on the left; emperors, kings, noblemen, and soldiers on the right—point their weapons at the money devil. The visual joke derives from a pun in the French inscription, which uses a word that means both “aiming at” and “striving for.” This print appears to be the only surviving impression of this particular composition.
The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Linked open data
Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.
- Object type
- AAT300041273
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.
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
Art Institute of Chicago
The Devil Painting Man’s Heart, from Allegory of the Misuse of Worldly Property
Art Institute of Chicago
Death with an Arrow About to Strike Man Down, from Allegory of the Misuse of Worldly Property
Art Institute of Chicago
De duivel vervult het menselijke hart met begeerte naar rijkdom, macht en genot
Rijksmuseum
A Young Man Climbing a Hillside Aided by Cupid, from Allegory of the Misuse of Worldly Property
Art Institute of Chicago
The Parable of the Tribute Money
Cleveland Museum of Art
It Is the Devil, Bearing Beneath His Two Wings the Seven Deadly Sins
Cleveland Museum of Art
It is the Devil, Bearing Beneath his Two Wings the Seven Deadly Sins, plate 2 from The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1st series)
Art Institute of Chicago
Pride and Madness (Orgeuille et Follie)
Art Institute of Chicago
The Flagellation
Minneapolis Institute of Art
“- You must come to have dinner, my wife will eat in town.. it is just us two men! - Ah, the Devil! I have a terrible headache (aside) and his wife is waiting for me!,” plate 7 from Vulgarités
Art Institute of Chicago
Knight, Death, and the Devil
Rijksmuseum