print
- Museum number
- 1834,0804.167
- Description
-
Allegory on covetousness: landscape with philosopher sitting in the right foreground, raising his arm in alarm, as a battle scene occurs in the background; on the left, a fortified city on fire. 1580
Engraving
- Production date
- 1580
- Dimensions
-
Height: 65 millimetres (cut)
-
Width: 94 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Plate 12 from a series of twenty, see 1834,0804.159 for comment.
Various inscriptions in verses found on certain copies (see Robert-Dumesnil IX p.73) give the meaning of the scene: men desire what they haven't got to the point of fighting to get it, yet they are never satisfied; also see 'Fontainebleau et l'estampe en France au XVIe siècle, iconographie et contradictions', Nemours 1985, cat. No.154.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1834
- Acquisition notes
- The varied and important prints inventoried as 1834,0804.1 to 356 were all purchased by Ottley in the third part of the Stowe sale, beginning on 14 July 1834. He bought 50 lots which cost the BM a total of £93 4s. His purchases were also listed in the 1837 inventory under the numbers Kk,7.1 to 277 and Kk,8.1 to 78. The order of the inventory listing does not follow that of the 1834,0804 register. The records have been edited to make the 1834,0804 number the prime number, and the Kk,7 The group of French and Italian prints purchased by Ottley at the Stowe sale and registered as 1834,0804.1 to 356 were all sold on the 19th, 20th and 30th days of the sale, 14th, 15th and 26th July 1834 (the lots were consecutively numbered). The total price paid was £93 4s. They seem to have been bought by Ottley himself bidding at the sale. 8 numbers have been recorded as additional numbers. (AVG 2019)
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1834,0804.167
- Additional IDs
-
Other BM number: Kk,7.133