Admonition against Arrogance and Undeserved Honour 1549

Curator: Oh, what a tangled web we weave. My first impression is one of chaos—almost comedic in its excess. Look at the faces, all twisted up like pretzels! Editor: Indeed. We're looking at "Admonition against Arrogance and Undeserved Honour," a print from 1549 by Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert, currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. Coornhert worked primarily with pen, ink, and engraving techniques. Note the Mannerist style: exaggerated forms, stylized poses, intricate detail, and a clear affinity for allegory. Curator: Allegory is right. It looks like everyone is bowing and scraping before this queen on an ass, and some poor guy's got to whip the donkey forward. I assume this is more than just someone’s bad day at the Renaissance fair. Editor: Precisely. This is a moralizing image. The central figure embodies undeserved honor—think fame or power achieved without merit. She is enthroned upon the donkey, an animal associated with folly and stubbornness, with a lackey at her back enforcing reverence through violent action. The crowd's extreme postures signify their misguided veneration of her station, blind to true worthiness. Curator: It’s a little on the nose, isn't it? Though I guess nuance wasn’t the point. The level of detail is fascinating though. Even the ruins in the background add another layer of… everything decays. Editor: Yes. The background reinforces the transient nature of worldly acclaim against the eternal qualities that genuinely warrant praise. The landscape in its entire graphic complexity reinforces the instability of any kind of veneration granted by mere virtue of title. Curator: Well, Coornhert certainly lays it on thick! I am left with a sense of the fleeting, desperate hunger for approval that's still haunting people’s thoughts, even now. Editor: And the rigorous artistic decisions within this composition, that highlight and expose the very core of flawed values still leave one contemplating the foundations on which modern appreciation lies.