Dronkaard in een kruiwagen 1803 - 1842

Anthonie Willem Hendrik Nolthenius de Man created this etching, titled 'Dronkaard in een kruiwagen', depicting a drunkard in a wheelbarrow. The image is dominated by the figure of a man, supine in a wheelbarrow. The inebriated man recalls the figures of vice and folly found in the works of Hieronymus Bosch. The barrow is pushed by a figure reminiscent of Death, with its obscured face and shrouded form. The motif of a figure being transported, often incapacitated, is not isolated here. Think of depictions of Silenus, the tutor of Dionysus, often shown drunk and supported by satyrs. The imagery of incapacitation serves as a potent reminder of human fallibility and the ephemeral nature of control. These symbols resurface, evolve, and take on new meanings in different historical contexts.