Pieter van der HEYDEN (c. 1530 - after 1572) after Pieter BRUEGEL THE ELDER (c. 1525 - 1569):  Luxuria [Lust] - c. 1558

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Engraving, 224 x 294 mm. New Hollstein (Bruegel) 27.

Plate from the Seven Deadly Sins series.

Superb impression of the only state printed on watermarked laid paper (gothic P), published by Hieronymus Cock (1518 - 1570).

Excellent condition, good margins all around the platemark (sheet: 258 x 337 mm). Minor soiling to the edges of the margins, tiny foxmark to the top left of the image, very faint central vertical soft fold. Rare in this printing quality and condition.

The Latin legend LUXURIA ENERVAT VIRES, EFFOEMINAT ARTUS reminds us that ‘Lust exhausts the strength and softens the body’. As for the Middle Dutch caption, ‘Luxurÿe stinckt, sÿ is vol onsuuerheden, Sÿ breeckt die Crachten, en sÿ swackt die leden’, it is translated as follows by Maarten Bassens (in Bruegel, The Complete Graphic Works, 2019, p. 147): ‘Lechery stinks, it is dirty. It breaks [man's] powers and weakens limbs’.

The cockerel, here an attribute of debauchery, accompanies the personification of Lust, sitting naked on the lap of a demon who kisses and caresses her. Scenes of orgies or scenes with erotic or serious connotations abound around the couple. Many of the details are frankly comical, while others are more grating, such as the face with its eyes trained on the viewer, and where it is unclear whether the arms are legs and the wide-open mouth an anus, or the male figure holding a severed phallus in his right hand and a large knife in his left, with which he threatens his own sex: ‘However moralising the message, this kind of detail, both mocking and obscene, proves that Bruegel does not shy away from a joke’ (Manfred Sellink: Bruegel, lʹœuvre complet - peintures, dessins, gravures, 2007, p. 93, translated by us).

Bruegel's preparatory drawing is kept at the Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.