drawing
- Museum number
- 1913,0331.203
- Description
-
Riches and poverty; scene with a wealthy couple wearing costumes with long train on which sit a beggar and his family, beyond a castle with moat and trees at r
Pen and black ink
- Production date
- 1540-1550 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 69 millimetres
-
Width: 191 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Summary of J. Rowlands, 'Drawings by German Artists and Artists from German-speaking regions of Europe in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum: the Fifteenth Century, and the Sixteenth Century by Artists born before 1530', London, BM Press, 1993, no.78:
'This drawing is a mature work of Beham's later years. The subject appears to illustrate the proverb, 'Der Hoffart sitzt der Bettel auf der Schleppe' (Pride places the beggar on his train). Although it is not known how much this proverb was in use, similar sayings of the day warned the rising middle classes of the danger of dependence on wealth. That such moral instances greatly appealed to the patricians is borne out by the number and variety of moral works in various forms and media that appeared during the sixteenth century. A fine example which shows the theme of the present drawing, with a rich couple bearing on their train a poor couple, this time comfortably seated, is found in the landscape painting, signed and dated 1531, by Albrecht Altdorfer in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (inv. no. 638c).'
LITERATURE: B. Nichols, Burlington, xxv, 1914, p. 164; C. Dodgson, Burlington, xxvi, 1914-15, pp. 145f., repr.; BM Guide, 1928, p. 39, no. 331
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1928 BM London, Guide Woodcuts, Drawings of A. Dürer, no. 331
- Acquisition date
- 1913
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1913,0331.203
