Pride goeth before a fall 1531

Curator: Well, hello there! Doesn’t this engraving, “Pride goeth before a fall,” just shout "Northern Renaissance morality tale"? Christoph Bockstorffer did it in 1531. You find it at the Met in New York, of course. Editor: It's awfully busy. It's like a dream I once had after eating too much cheese—a landscape tilting precariously, a nobleman falling off his high horse—literally. A veritable scrum of tumbling figures. Curator: Exactly! Look at that horse rearing. It symbolizes the precarious nature of power. Bockstorffer is depicting the old proverb right before our eyes. He’s making it painfully literal. Editor: I’m guessing that text up there, "Hofart stvor dem verderben her," translates to something like, well, pride goeth before destruction, right? Curator: Precisely. That's a passage from the Book of Proverbs. Notice how the setting almost seems to be collapsing? Even the natural world reflects this moral unraveling. The landscape itself becomes complicit in the fall of this arrogant nobleman. The figures scrambling and stumbling seem so chaotic in the distance! It makes the composition uneasy. Editor: It makes me wonder who would hang this in their house. Was it supposed to inspire introspection, maybe curb people’s haughty behavior? Was this sort of image pervasive back then? A memento mori sort of for the ego? Curator: It would have functioned in numerous ways, reflecting and reinforcing social and religious hierarchies. Consider how art served a crucial function in early modern society; printed images like this allowed allegories about behavior to reach wider audiences in towns and cities and participate in that conversation on display. Editor: That actually contextualizes the piece. This little engraving is about more than personal downfall, it reflects a culture wrestling with power, ethics, and societal values! Curator: Precisely! It's about the role of the wealthy elite within this culture and society, especially as their activities impacted or even destabilized those around them! Editor: Who knew such a crowded scene could reveal so much? From tumbled figures to tangled ethics! Curator: It’s like glimpsing a whole worldview through a keyhole. Isn't art marvelous?