Minneapolis Institute of Art

Man has to learn everything, plate #2 from The Misery of Human Life

Philips Galle; after Maarten van Heemskerck

Date

1563

Medium

Etching

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

In the foreground, a woman spoonfeeds an infant, and another woman teaches a child to walk. Note that someone has tried to censor its bare bottom with a smudge of paint.Another child toddles along in a walking frame, while two others follow along whining. The backgound is filled with animals. This is the second print in a series of six that studies the misery of human life. The images were designed by Maarten van Heemskerck and engraved by Philips Galle. Each is accompanied by Latin verses by the learned Dutch polymath Hadrianus Junius (1511-1575), with further verses in French and Dutch below. Here the message is that animals naturally walk; fish swim--without drowning; and, birds fly with the aid of their wings. But we humans are unable to walk and have to rely on others for food. We come into the world with nothing in our memories except for the ability to cry. Flanders, Europe

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