Scene with a Warning Against Venereal Disease in a Circle at Center

Art Historical Context

In the late 16th century, the Renaissance era when syphilis epidemics swept through Europe, this small engraving served as a stark public health warning. Created collaboratively by Flemish engraver Theodor de Bry, Johann Sadeler I, and artist Christoph Schwarz around 1580–1600, the print centers a cautionary circular scene amid vignettes of revelry. Men and women carouse with drinks, musical instruments, and dogs, evoking the lively brothel or tavern culture that artists used to moralize against vice and venereal disease. As an engraving on a modest 5 5/16 × 5 3/8 in. sheet, the work exemplifies the precision of the intaglio technique, allowing intricate details to be reproduced affordably for wide dissemination. Classified under Prints: Ornament & Architecture, it likely features decorative borders or fantastical architectural motifs framing the didactic message—a clever blend of beauty and admonition typical of Northern European printmaking workshops. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, 1951), this piece reflects how art doubled as social commentary, urging viewers to heed the perils of indulgence in an age before modern medicine. A fascinating glimpse into Renaissance attitudes toward morality and health!

About the Artist

Theodor de Bry|Johann Sadeler I|Christoph Schwarz · 1528–1598

Theodor de Bry was born in 1528 in Liège, in what is now Belgium, into a family of jewelers and engravers. Trained as a goldsmith and copper-plate engraver — skills he refined under his grandfather, Thiry de Bry the Elder — he worked across several European cities before religious persecution forced him into exile. As a Protestant living under Spanish rule in the Southern Netherlands, de Bry was s...