Object Description
Series: TRIUMPHAL PROCESSIONS OF HUMAN FORTUNES
395 TRIUMPH OF HUMILITY
On a cart drawn to the left by two horses (Modesty and Mansuetudo) and directed by an old man with a stick (Methus), Humility sits, leaning forward, holding a split heart in her outstretched right hand and a winnowing shovel in her left. In front of the wagon walk Charity with three children and Faith with crossed arms, a cross in her right hand and a goblet with the Host in her left. Behind the horse walks Hope, shouldering an anchor on her right and holding a parrot in her left hand. A raised ground line rounded at both ends suggests an oval format.
Bronze, 63 x 118 mm.
After an engraving in the series "Circulus Vicissitudines Rerum Humanorum" by Hieronymus Cock, after Martin van Heemskerk (Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts 8, nos. 128-35). The engraving "Invidia" in that series is dated 1564, providing a "terminus post quem" for this series. Thirteen plaquettes from this series are now known. (Concerning these critical problems, see Weber, no. 678.) Other specimens in this series are most numerous.
Bibl.: Molinier, no. 663; Jacobsen, E., "Plaketten im Museo Correr zu Venedig," Repertorium fuer Kunstwissenschaft 16 (1893), p. 73; Leitschuh, no. 98, pl. 14 and p. 23, note 88; Braun, no. 108, pl. 23; Planiscig-Este, no. 460; Bange, DM., p. 133, no. 1489, pl. 30; S. Ricci, Gustave Dreyfus Collection—Renaissance Reliefs and Plaquettes, no. 427; Morgenroth, no. 405; Cott, Renaissance Bronzes, Statuettes, Reliefs and Plaquettes, Medals and Coins from the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington 1951, p. 159; Pope-Hennessy, no. 454, fig. 460; Harvard, no. 46, pl. 38; Pechstein, no. 251; Weber, no. 678, 6. Auction catalogs: Bardini, pl. 10, 179; Thewalt Collection, Lempertz, Cologne, 4-14 November 1903, no. 1188; Frank Coll., Cubasch, Vienna, 18 January 1904, no. 872; Gutekunst Coll., Hirsch, Munich, 7-8 November 1910, no. 377; Lanna Coll. II, Lepke, Berlin, 21-23 March 1911, no. 327, pl. 23; Faure Coll., Hamburger, Frankfurt/M., 22-23 September 1913, no. 723, pl. 22; Heinrici, no. 165, pl. 17; Molthein, no. 533; Gaettens Coll., Gaettens, Heidelberg, 1 April 1966, no. 152, pl. 19.
