The Parable of the Blind leading the Blind

Engraving, signed at the lower center with the excudit of Claes Janz. Visscher (CJV entwined). Beneath the image an explanation in French and in Dutch and a reference to the Bible text in Matthew 15:14. Numbered 3.

After Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

The blind leader is about to step into a ditch, taking his equally blind followers with him. The guide has a hurdy-gurdy under his cloak. A village can be seen in the background. The scene is a depiction of the proverb and parable: “if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into a ditch”. The meaning of which is: when the incompetent advises other incompetents, things go wrong.

The etching published by Claes Jansz. II Visscher is seemingly inspired by De parabel der blinden [The parable of the blind], painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1568. This hypothesis has been put forward by the Rijksmuseum, which keeps two impressions of this etching. It is etched in reverse compared to the painting, and uses the same composition: blind men, dressed like vagrants, follow a diagonal line across the picture, leading to a river in which they will soon fall; they narrowly missed a small plank bridge upstream, next to a tree. As in the painting, there is a village in the background. However, there are only three blind men instead of six in Bruegel's picture, and the one at the front, wearing the same hurdy gurdy as in the painting over his shoulder, hasn't fallen into the water yet.

Not described by Leeber, Bastealer and Hollstein. The Rijksmuseum suggests a date of 1643 in the notice to one of their two impressions, this work is taken from the series Theatrum Biblicum Hoc Est Historiae Sacrae Veteris et Novi Testamenti Tabulis Aeneis Expressae.

We believe that a more pertinent date for the work is between 1610 and 1620 and that it only later became part of the Bible published by Claes Jansz. Visscher. The engraver remains anonymous, but it is possible that it is the same author.

Visscher, who was born and died in Amsterdam, was also known as Nicolas Joannes Piscator or Nicolas Joannis Visscher II, after his father who lived ca. 1550–1612. He learned the art of etching and printing from his father, and helped grow the family printing and mapmaking business to one of the largest in his time. It was a family business; his son Nicolaes Visscher I (1618–1679), and his grandson Nicolaes Visscher II (1649–1702) were also mapmakers in Amsterdam on the Kalverstraat. The times were with the Visschers for other reasons; due to the Protestant reformation, the older Bibles with their "Roman Catholic" illustrations were seen as outdated and apocryphal, but to liven up the new Protestant Bibles for the less well-read clergy, the Visschers produced illustrated maps and even landscapes of the places in the Bible. This became a very successful family business, with collaboration with many respected draughtsmen of the day. A new translation of the Bible was underway in the Netherlands, and until then, the new German translation done by Johannes Piscator, published in 1602–1604, was translated into Dutch. Though probably not a relative, his Bible translation was accepted by the Dutch Staten-General in 1602, which only lent more publicity and authenticity to the "Fisher" name.

The trademark of the Visschers was a “fisherman”, after their name (thus the Latin nickname Piscator). A small fisherman would be strategically placed somewhere near water. If the subject was a landscape without a stream or pond, then often a figure walking with a fishing rod can be seen. Their map plates were reused for a century by other printers who unknowingly copied the entire plates, including the tell-tale fishermen. Observant scholars are thus able to trace the provenance of Bibles, maps, and landscapes from these signs.

A fine impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, with margins, perfect condition.