Artwork Information

  • Title:

    Pride (Superbia)

  • Artist:

    van der Heyden, Pieter; after Pieter Bruegel the Elder

  • Artist Bio:

    Netherlandish, about 1525–1569; Netherlandish, about 1525–1569

  • Date:

    1558

  • Medium:

    Engraving

  • Dimensions:

    9 x 11 3/4 inches

  • Credit Line:

    Wichita Art Museum, Museum purchase, Wichita Art Museum Members Foundation

  • Object Number:

    1972.11

  • Display:

    Not Currently on Display


About the Artwork

Brueghel became an artist at a time when the fine print publishing business was just beginning to flourish in Antwerp and single sheet prints – prints made for their own sake instead of as book illustrations — were being produced. Pride, one of Brueghel’s images from a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, is the kind of moralizing didactic work intended for the instruction of the masses. However, one also suspects that it had high entertainment value. This image and related designs were influenced by the work of Hieronymus Bosch who had set forth the follies of mankind in fantasy scenes peopled by grotesque monsters.