Dearly beloved readers:
I am very pleased to send you this engraving entitled…
…STVLTITIAM PATIVNTVR OPES.
─‘Wealth allows stupidity’─.
This engraving belongs to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, United States.
This engraving is the living representation of the decadence of humanity swallowed up by the horizontality of life, all of which undoubtedly entails the most total entropy we can imagine.
In the images we can see a king, symbol of the upper class of society, who has the ears of a donkey, indicating that the habit does not make the monk, that is, that social status does not equate to having wisdom. In the history of mankind there have been kings and queens who carried out real stupidities during their life in which they held their reign.
With regard to our canvas, an absolute disorder is observed that practically covers the entire scene. On a table is an open chest full of jewels and coins, which the aforementioned king is counting as entertainment, since the degenerate royalty only had such entertainments linked to the accumulation of said wealth.
On the floor of the image the disorder continues to manifest itself, and for this reason we see jugs, vases, plates, etc., etc., thrown out there and pointed to by the left hand of the monarch.
Near the king is a jester, who places a clown hat similar to his own on the king’s head. This tells us that neither the king nor the jester has an adequate level of being, as they both wallow in chaos.
On the other side of our artistic representation we can see the queen equally swallowed by vanity, carrying in her right hand a mirror in which her face appears aged, but she considers herself very young according to her appreciations, such is our vanity. On the legs of the sovereign lady we see a little dog that shares the hours with its masters, and there very close by we can see a fairly large plate on which a jug stands. The tablecloth of the small table on which the plate is found, is totally disordered because of the indifference of its owners.
There are two ladies who assist the sovereign lady. One carries a fan in her right hand and a parrot in her left, a symbol of the chatter and gossip typical of many women in different social classes. The other has the head of a wild boar, a symbol of her baseness, and she is serving her food and drinks. According to some commentators, these two women would represent flattery and stupidity, something very common in the so-called high spheres…..
There is a monkey on the floor of this scene alluding to ways that people look for to spend hours identified with the cuteness of such animals. When there is no concern about knowing ourselves, we spend the hours of our lives contemplating the stupidities of it.
In the background of our engraving we can see a man ─emaciated─, carrying in his hands a plate with which he intends to beg for a few crumbs of food to feed himself. That is how our humanity has been and continues to be. Some are stuffed with money, with which they do not even know what to do, and others in the most absolute misery begging everywhere for the essentials: bread, clothes and shelter.
At the bottom right is written in Latin: Iodocus a Winge invent, ‘Joos Van Winghe (1544-1603) invented it’, and Raphael sadler fecit et excudit 1588, ‘Made and printed by Raphael Sadeler ─the elder (1561-1628)─, in 1588’.
I offer you now some phrases to be reflected upon:
“The richness of the soul is the only wealth, the other goods are fruitful in sorrows.
Luciano
“It is the heart of man that must become rich, not his coffers.”
Cicero
“The shortest way to get rich is to despise riches.”
Seneca
“It is as difficult for the rich to acquire wisdom as it is for the wise to acquire riches.”
Epictetus
“Do you want to be rich? Well, do not toil to increase your possessions, but to diminish your covetousness.”
Epicurus
REPETITIO EST MATER STUDIORUM.
─‘Repetition is the mother of studies’─.
KWEN KHAN KHU