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The Beggars, or Till Eulenspiegel
c. 1520 (later, 17th century impression)
Artist:Lucas Van Leyden (after)Anonymous Netherlandish printmaker. LikelyHendrik Hondius I.Dimension: 17.1 x 13.9cmCatalogue raisonné:New Hollstein 159, copy a.Bartsch 159, copy.State: I/II
Condition: Overall good condition. Impression trimmed close to or just outside the image platemark, with a narrow surviving paper edge. Hondius lettering trimmed.There is general age toning and scattered pale brown spotting, particularly in the upper portion of the sheet. The image remains substantially complete, with the fine etched work throughout the costumes, landscape and tree clearly legible.
Notes:A close early copy after Lucas van Leyden's celebrated and exceptionally rare 1520 print traditionally known as The Beggars or Eulenspiegel. The composition represents an itinerant family progressing through a landscape: a bagpiper carries children in a basket on his back, while a woman accompanies a donkey similarly laden with children; at lower left a small figure carries an owl. The work has long been associated with the satirical tradition surrounding Till Eulenspiegel. The Metropolitan Museum of Art interprets the image as a family of beggars masquerading as pilgrims to elicit charity and connects the imagery with Sebastian Brant’s Ship of Fools. The owl signifies idleness or sin, while the bagpipes carry connotations of folly.
The Rijksmuseum specifically notes that Rembrandt admired Lucas and records that in 1642 Rembrandt bought an impression of this very print for 179 guilders, an extraordinary amount at the time. The purchase was sufficiently remarkable that contemporaries commented on it.
This is likely a 17th century copy printed and published by Hendrik Hondius, trimmed to eliminate the text.
