Lust. From: The Vices.

Heinrich Aldegrever was one of the so-called 'Little Masters', a group of German artists making small prints in the generation after Albrecht Dürer, who included Hans Baldung Grien, the Beham brothers and Georg Pencz. The close resemblance of his work to that of Dürer led to Aldegrever being called the 'Albert of Westphalia', although his style went on to depart from his mentor's intricate line work to stress the optical effects of light and shadow. He became a Lutheran convert in 1531, but continued to depict religious themes, while his ornamental engravings were used as models by artists and craftsmen well into the 17th century. His images of virtues and vices were so popular that Aldegrever made cycles of both in 1549 (not yet represented in the collection) and, here, 1552. Te Papa owns the complete cycle of virtues and vices, all acquired in 1978. These complement several Aldegrever prints in the foundation art collection, presented to the Colonial Museum, forerunner of Te Papa, in 1869 by Bishop Ditlev Monrad.

The female personification of Lust (Libido) rides on a camel, which is usually an attribute of wrath or idleness, indicating that Aldegrever used a certain artistic licence in his choice of animals. The fox on her standard, however, is a more orthodox symbol of seduction, particularly in view of his change of behaviour in the rutting season. On the shield, the young cock was known in antiquity as an erotic gift - and their mating with hens is conducted in the open. In the Old Testament, the frog is closely linked to the second Egyptian plague, which brought an immeasurable number of frogs out of the Nile because of their enormous fertility (Exodus 8, 1-10).

Although the print thus appears to be brimming with creatures symbolising unbridled sexual desires, in Aldegrever's time (and now) it could also mean deep desire in general thus, lust for money, power, and other things are all sinful.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Aldegrever

Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art                   December 2016