Allegory of Transcience (Homo Bulla)

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558–1617)

1594

Medium/TechniqueEngraving

DimensionsSheet: 21.7 x 15.7 cm (8 9/16 x 6 3/16 in.)

Credit LineHarvey D. Parker Collection—Harvey Drury Parker Fund

Accession numberP7301

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPrints

Collections

InscriptionsInscribed in plate, beneath monogram: 1594; on stone, lower center: QVIS EVADETS; in lower margin: Flos nouus, et verna fragrans argenteus aura/Marcescit subitò, perit, ali, perit illa venustas./Sic et vita hominum iam, nunc nascentibus, eheu, /Instar abit bullæ vaniqz elapsa vaporis. F. Estius [The fresh silvery flower, fragrant with the breath of spring, Withers once its beauty wanes; Likewise the life of man, already ebbing in the newborn babe, Vanishes like a bubble or like fleeting smoke.]

ProvenanceMid 19th century, Reverend John Burleigh James (b. 1811 - d. 1891), Knowlbury Park, Shropshire, England; 1877, his collection dispersed Sotheby, Wilkinson, & Hodge. Henry Foster Sewell (b. 1816 - d. 1896; Lugt 1309), New York; November, 1897, purchased by the MFA through the Harvey D. Parker Fund. (Accession Date: October 21, 1897)