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Overview
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.
Idleness or Sloth (Acedia) is an engraving in the cycle of allegorical depictions of the Vices or the Seven Deadly Sins (counterparts to the Seven Virtues), based on biblical numerical symbolism and Christian moral metaphor. The female personification of the title administers a listless prod to a still lazier, reclinging donkey. Donkeys familiarly symbolise stupidity, stubbornness and above all laziness. Sir James Merivale said that the crayfish (the emblem of her flag) 'doth move only backwards', and when eaten alone was believed to lead to sloth and idleness. The crest nearby sports a monkey: these animals carry a wide range of negative connotations including stupidity, cunning, deceit - and here laziness.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Aldegrever
Dr Mark Stocker, Curator Historical International Art December 2016