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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileafter Hendrick Goltzius
This moralizing scene parodies noble pastimes, such as falconry, by showing a fool treating a night-dwelling owl as a prized hunting hawk. A second figure gazes intently through large spectacles, while a third holds a marotte, or fool's staff, topped with a miniature head. The exaggerated, muscular anatomy of the figures and the detailed landscape are characteristic of the Haarlem Mannerist style.
The print is a visual meditation on the Renaissance concept of Philautia (Self-Love), drawing directly from the humanist tradition of Sebastian Brant’s 'Ship of Fools' and Erasmus’s 'The Praise of Folly.' It illustrates the philosophical idea that man is often blind to his own ignorance, mistaking his own 'owls' (follies) for 'falcons' (wisdom).
4 Cuiq' suum pulchrum est, et gaudet Simia prole Læta sua, gaudet quantum haud Erycina puello Diua pharetrato, nec formosissimus ore Arrisit roseo matri inter basia Niueus. Ad sua cæcutit iam quisq', est noctua falco, Falco suo domino, qui non discernit ab atris Candida, sed stupida ruit in deliria mente Quicquid amatq' probat, nulloq' examine pensat.
Translation
4 To each their own is beautiful, and the Ape rejoices In her own offspring; she rejoices more than the Erycinian Goddess ever did in her quiver-bearing boy, nor did the most beautiful Snow-white child ever smile at his mother amidst her kisses. Everyone is now blind to their own; the owl is a falcon, A falcon to its master, he who does not discern white From black, but rushes with a stupid mind into delusions; Whatever he loves, he approves, and weighs it with no examination.
Desiderius Erasmus
The print visualizes themes from 'The Praise of Folly,' specifically the blindness of self-love and the social performance of ignorance.
Sebastian Brant
The work belongs to the 'Stultitiae' tradition established by Brant’s 'Das Narrenschiff' (The Ship of Fools).
Object
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Engraving
allegory
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
National Gallery Of Art
Public domain
2155 × 3000 px
ac791a42d803e55fdaff5ac475891a8798eaf378
December 12, 2014
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.