Artwork Page for Two Beggars Fighting

Details / Information for Two Beggars Fighting

Two Beggars Fighting

1610–20
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Jacques Bellange

(French, c. 1575–1616)
Culture
France, 17th century
Medium
etching
Credit Line
Fortieth Anniversary Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in honor of William Mathewson Milliken 1960.20
Catalogue raisonné
Walch 18
State
I/II
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Since antiquity, music was considered to inspire two different effects: it could elevate the soul to spiritual thoughts, or arouse passions both violent and sensual. In this genre scene, two transients engage in an epic struggle. The hurdy-gurdy, slung across the body of one of the vagabonds, was considered a "base" instrument whose melodies heated the senses without uplifiting the spirit. In his Syntagma Musicum of 1618, the musical theorist Michael Praetorius dubbed the hurdy-gurdy a "fiddle for peasants and loose women."
A vertically oriented print in black ink depicts a chaotic struggle. Centrally, a man with a wide hat and exaggerated features leans back, raising a wooden staff. To our right, a bearded figure in loose clothing lunges forward, gripping the first man's collar. A boxy instrument hangs from his waist. Layered, frenzied dashes and cross-hatching define their figures. At the bottom, a shaggy dog bites the first man's leg against a sparse background.

Two Beggars Fighting

1610–20

Jacques Bellange

(French, c. 1575–1616)
France, 17th century

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