Phaeton, from "The Four Disgracers"

A woman with heavy features and loose garments represents the vice of Sloth, leaning listlessly while holding a snail as a symbol of extreme slowness. At her feet lies an ass, an animal traditionally associated with stupidity and lethargy in sixteenth-century iconography. The engraving utilizes the dramatic, swirling lines characteristic of the Haarlem Mannerist style to depict the heavy clouds and rugged landscape.

This print belongs to a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, reflecting the Northern Renaissance preoccupation with moral discipline and the dangers of spiritual apathy (acedia). In the circle of the Haarlem Mannerists, such vices were viewed as the primary internal obstacles to the intellectual and spiritual labor required to achieve the 'Great Work' of self-refinement.