Temperance (Temperantia)
Pieter Breughel the Elder (1525-1569), Temperance, engraving, c. 1560, engraved by Philips Galle, one of the Seven Virtues. References: Hollstein 138, Bastelaer 138, LeBeer 133, New Hollstein 315, first state (of 2), before the correction in the text changing the last i of the word “tenacitati” to an “e”. [Inscribed Bruegel lower right, and with the word “Temperantia on the hem of the woman’s dress, in the plate] In very good condition, a tiny rust mark upper left, trimmed at the plate mark and outside of the borderline all around, 8 3/4 x 11 3/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in an olive/black ink on old laid paper.
Breughel’s pen and ink drawing for Temperance is in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
The translation of the Latin text: “We must look to it that, in the devotion to sensual pleasures, we do not become wasteful and luxuriant, but also that we do not, because of miserly greed, live in filth an ignorance.”
In contrast to the extreme behaviors found in some of Breughel’s compositions, everyone’s activities here are quite measured, and in fact many of them are literally measuring things: men measure the height of a pillar as well as the size of the earth and the distance between stars. In the lower right rather adult looking students study the alphabet, and an orchestra and chorus play diligently at the left. Temperantia herself seems to be holding various measuring devices while balancing a clock on her head.
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