Personification of envy

Etching, ca. 1682, unsigned and without editorial indications.

From a subject by Wilhelm Baur. German text in lower margin; numbered lower right: 33.

Allegory of Envy. In Christianity, envy is a capital vice because, like pride, it leads to excessive self-love at the expense of brotherly love and love for God, thus creating a great possibility for the action of evil. Envy is represented by an old woman who has a poisonous tongue, visualized through the image of a twisting serpent, after coming out of the old woman's mouth. Above, the goddess Eris throws the apple of discord among the wedding guests of Peleus and Thetis.

The print belongs to a series of allegorical figures, virtues and vices in the album: Johann Wilhelm Baur, Iconographia, 1682.

Melchior Küsel (Augsburg 1626 - 1684) was a pupil of Matthäus Merian the Elder in Frankfurt and on several occasions worked with his brother Matthäus Küsel. He produced several translation engravings, and among the series he produced we can mention: the 146 engravings entitled "Iconographia" (1670); the 42 plates of the "Fido Shepherd" of 1671; the 40 plates of the "Underschidliche Prospecten" of 1681; and the 151 plates of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" of 1681, which were copied from Baur's engraved series of 1639/41.

Magnificent proof, rich in tone, printed on contemporary laid paper, with margins, in perfect condition.

Bibliografia

New Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) German engravings, etchings and woodcuts, ca. 1400-1700 [Maria Magdalena Küsel to Johann Christoph Laidig] / ed. by Fedja Anzelewsky; comp. by Robert Zijlma, p. 105-107, cat.nr. 333.