Jacob Matham
Dutch, 1571-1631

after Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558-1617)

Wrath, from The Seven Deadly Sins, 1592/93
Engraving

Museum Purchase
1988.15 a

Today, many would laugh at the Medieval Christian notion of the battle between the Virtues and the Vices, which is seen in Prudentius' poem Psychomachia. But this seemingly abstract concept was often depicted as vividly as any description of psychological conflict in Jung or Freud. It may even remind us of current controversial accounts of dissociated personality. These almost palpable abstractions are, at least, Powers in the mental world and are usually seen as female. The Medieval feminist poet Christine de Pizan came close to despair when confronting the tendency to see Vice as female: ". . .They all concur in one conclusion: that the behavior of women is inclined to and full of every vice." So powerful was the abstract concept of female Vice for Christine that she hated herself, "despite the fact that I could not see or realize how their claims could be true when compared to the natural behavior and character of women." Christine eventually comes to say: ". . .let all writers be silent who speak badly of women." The stepson of the great Goltzius, Matham made these prints after Goltzius' wryly heroic drawings. These sculpturesque archetypes are barely restrained from coming alive in their niches. Do we fearfully meditate on them (as if we were in the cathedral of the mind) or do we amorally admire their elegant force?


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