Stultitiam patiuntur opes (Wealth permits Stupidity), or, Allegory of Wealth, Lust, and Stupidity (1588): Art, History and Details

Stultitiam patiuntur opes (Wealth permits Stupidity), or, Allegory of Wealth, Lust, and Stupidity (1588) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Raphael Sadeler (Flemish, 1560/61–1628/32); Joos Van Winghe (Flemish, 1544–1603).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In this pointed visual allegory, a king who personifies wealth counts his money at a table while a jester places a fool’s hat over his head. His female counterpart, distracted by her aged reflection in a mirror, displays her vanity in her luxurious clothing, lap dog, and hangers-on: flattery fans her, and stupidity, with a boar’s head, serves her food and drink. Such allegories were meant to both entertain while cautioning the viewer to question their own relationship to wealth.

Object facts

• Title: Stultitiam patiuntur opes (Wealth permits Stupidity), or, Allegory of Wealth, Lust, and Stupidity
• Date: 1588
• Creator attribution: Raphael Sadeler (Flemish, 1560/61–1628/32); Joos Van Winghe (Flemish, 1544–1603)
• Culture: Flanders
• Type: Print
• Technique: Engraving
• Dimensions: Image: 29.2 x 35.8 cm (11 1/2 x 14 1/8 in.); Sheet: 31.4 x 37.1 cm (12 3/8 x 14 5/8 in.)
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2017.199

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Peters, Emily J. and Wehn, James. “Acquisition Highlights: Prints.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 2 (March/April 2018): 14-15.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.