Slapende marskramer beroofd door apen 1597 - 1608

This black and white etching, “Sleeping Peddler Robbed by Monkeys,” is currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. The composition is dynamic; an energetic swarm of monkeys overwhelm the slumbering merchant, creating a scene of chaos. The artist uses the line of the engraving to emphasize the textural contrasts between the fur of the animals and the smooth fabrics of the merchant's wares. The perspective warps, compressing the space to heighten the sense of confinement and disorder. This print destabilizes the conventional hierarchy between humans and animals, casting the monkeys as shrewd capitalists who invert the usual power dynamics of commerce. The scene is set as a theatre for an allegorical lesson in the instability of fortune and the ever-present threat of reversal. Note how the artist uses the graphic precision of engraving to engage with themes of social inversion and the human condition. In doing so, the artwork invites us to reconsider established categories of order and disorder, reason and instinct.