Labor

Raphael Sadeler I|Maerten de Vos

1591 · Engraving and etching · Drawings and Prints

Love, labor, honor, and pain: these are the four stages of human life according to many early modern artists, including Sadeler. In this image of labor, Minerva, goddess of crafts, commerce, and the arts (as well as wisdom), appears above a muscular young man who seems to have been interrupted in the act of measurement. He gazes at a building under construction, with a compass in his left hand, a large architectural treatise in his right, and various instruments of the liberal arts at his feet. In the distance are industrious scenes of men and women engaged in harvesting and weaving. Labor is understood here to encompass not only the virtues of physical activity but also the diligence required to produce works of art, mathematics, and science.

Artist

Raphael Sadeler I|Maerten de Vos

Date

1591

Medium

Engraving and etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1944