Vooraf gedaan, daarna bedacht, / heeft menigëen in leed gebragt 1820 - 1848

This illustrated print, made by Christiaan Jacob Schuyling, likely used woodblock printmaking techniques and vividly depicts a series of cautionary tales. Each scene contains everyday characters acting out a situation that teaches a moral lesson. Take the image of a horse and carriage, or a child playing with a cat: these are domestic scenes that also appear in other Dutch Golden Age paintings that carry symbolic weight. The theme of "beware of unintended consequences" is portrayed through various mishaps and accidents; these scenes resonate with similar motifs found in morality plays performed across Europe, where each character represented a virtue or vice. This kind of didactic approach mirrors a deeper human impulse: to project our anxieties and ethical frameworks onto the world through symbolic narrative. Consider how such simple scenes trigger a cascade of associations, connecting us to a long history of visual storytelling intended to teach and guide.