Artwork
When Your Purse Is Empty, You Eat Bones Not Bacon
When Your Purse Is Empty, You Eat Bones Not Bacon is an ink print by the Renaissance artist Hendrick Goltzius. It dates from 1592 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower left, in image, in plate: 6; lower left, in image, in plate: C. Mander Inve.; below image in plate: Dum vestirentur prima lanugine mal[a]e, / Tum vigor [a]etatis Trieterica, et orgia amabat; / Nunc deploramus vacu[a]e eheu damna crumen[a]e, / Futilibus querimur transactaq[ue] tempora nugis. Tunc pernas largè, nunc arida rodimus ossa, / Tun Cr[a]esi, et Crassi, nunc Iri cardine verso. / H[a]ec rota Fortun[a]e non est, v[a]esania nostra est, / Dicere, quain miserum est, habui, quain botrus amarus. (When our jaws were first covered with down, that vital age loved triennial Bacchus banquets. Now we regret, ah, the disadvantage of the purse being empty and complain about the time spent on useless small talk. Then we chewed on hams aplenty, now on dry bones, then the wheel revolved around Croesus and Crassus, now aroudn Irus. I must say: this is not the wheel of fortune, it is our own insanity. How wretched it is, how sour the grapes.); below plate, in letterpress: Een ijdel buijdel maecket hert t'onvreden / Den tijt voorleden, moeten wij beclaghen / Doen wij van het speck al te diepe sneden / Thammetgen is op wij moeten thieltgen knaghen. (An empty purse will make a sorry heart, / For to amend whats past the time is gone. / Wee ranted high, which makes us now to smart, / When the meats off wee're forst to pick the bone.) [translations by Jan Bloemendal in _The New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700_. (Karel van Mander, Marjolein Leesberg, author). Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1999, no. 98, pp. lxxvi-lxxvii.]
About this work
Overview
Created circa 1592, this print by Hendrick Goltzius combines engraving with letterpress on laid paper. It depicts a skeletal figure seated at a stark table, a dog gnawing a bone nearby, and a single candle casting a dim glow over the scene. The work exemplifies the intricate, densely worked prints for which Goltzius was renowned during the late sixteenth century.
Subject & Meaning
The image presents a skeleton whose ribs press against its skin, suggesting a state of extreme poverty. The title, When Your Purse Is Empty, You Eat Bones Not Bacon, reinforces the moral warning about scarcity and survival, using the skeletal figure and the dog’s bone as visual metaphors for deprivation.
Technique & Style
Goltzius employed fine cross‑hatching and delicate line work to model every surface, from the skeleton’s shadow to the texture of the laid paper. The dense, rhythmic lines create a rich tonal range, characteristic of Northern Mannerist engraving, while the letterpress adds textual emphasis to the title.
History & Provenance
Hendrick Goltzius, a German‑born Dutch printmaker, was a leading figure in early Baroque printmaking. He frequently designed images for other artists to reproduce, and this print reflects his prolific output and technical virtuosity. The work remains a documented example of his late‑sixteenth‑century production.
Context
The print belongs to the Northern Mannerist movement, which favored elaborate compositions and virtuoso draftsmanship. In the Netherlands of the 1590s, such moralizing subjects were common in prints intended for a broad audience, serving both didactic and decorative purposes.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Hendrick Goltzius (German: , Dutch: ; né Goltz; January or February 1558 – 1 January 1617) was a German-born Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter.
