Wine is a Mocker (De Wiin is een Spotter)

Hendrik Bary (1640-1707), Wine is a Mocker, etching and engraving, after Frans van Mieris (1635-1681), painted in 1664, printed in 1670. Reference: Wurzbach 7, Hollstein 11, third state (of 3), after the addition of the name of the publisher Petrus Schenk, Jr. In good condition, on old laid paper with a large crest watermark, small margins, 11 1/2 x 7 5/8 inches.

A very good impression of this iconic image.

The title is taken from Proverbs 20:1 (Wine is a Mocker). The sleeper is ridiculed as a drinker. The owl recalls two proverbs: Drunk as an Owl, and “What use are candles and spectacles is the owl will not see?” The fool-mocker pours his piss-pot (to invoke the 17th Century expression) on the drunken women, who is both blind to this act and degraded as well.

It’s said – by Diogenes Laetrius in his biography of Socrates – that Socrates was another sufferer of this fate at the hands of his wife. Also, the fact that Van Mieris had something of a reputation as a drinker places this sheet in an ironic light.

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