Sloth (Desidia)

Maker Pieter van der Heyden (Flemish, ca. 1530-after 1572)

Engraverengraved by Hieronymus Cock (Netherlandish, ca. 1510 - 1570)

Afterafter Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish, ca. 1525 - 1569)

Collections

European Print Highlights

ClassificationsPRINTS

Date1558

Mediumengraving

Dimensions8 7/8 x 11 11/16 in. (22.6 x 29.7 cm.)

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of A. Stanton Avery

Status

Not on view

Label TextThis print, one of seven entitled The Vices, illustrates the perils of laziness. The sleeping Desidia, or Lady Sloth, reclines in the center while various demonic creatures harass the human figures indulging in sloth throughout the scene. The inscription reads, “Sluggishness breaks strength, long idleness [breaks] the nerves. Sloth makes [man] powerless and dries out the nerves until man is good for nothing.”

Object number95.17.1