Title
Hope
circa 1559
Artists
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Details
- Alternative title
- Spes
- Date
- circa 1559
- Media category
- Materials used
- engraving
- Edition
- only state
- Dimensions
- 22.3 x 28.6 cm trimmed to platemark
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Tony Gilbert Bequest Fund 2014
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 167.2014
- Artist information
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Philip Galle
Works in the collection
- Artist information
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after Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
The scene is a Flemish port city threatened by high water. There are also ships in distress on the churning sea. Placed near the centre of the composition, the personification of Hope wears a beehive headdress and balances on an anchor – a symbol of stability and security. She holds a spade and a sickle (the farmer’s hope for a good harvest). The inscription along the bottom reads: ‘Very pleasant is the conviction of hope and most necessary for life, amid many and almost unbearable hardships’.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
European prints and drawings 1500-1900, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Aug 2014–02 Nov 2014
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Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
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F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700, Amsterdam, 1949. no.133
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Provenance
Private Collection, United States of America
Swann Auction Galleries, New York/New York/United States of America, Purchased by the AGNSW from Swann Auction Galleries, 29 April 2014, 'Old Master Through Modern Prints' lot.52
