Moral Emblems: The Ingratitude of the World

Engraving, part of a set of 20 moral emblems, each designated by a letter of the alphabet. The set was designed by Jean Delaune and engraved by his father, Étienne Delaune, in 1580. It explores the theme of vanity in mundane things, denouncing the artifices of the world (beauty, pleasure, luxury...), and praising virtue. This print represents the ingratitude of the world with a scene made up of a male philosopher, sitting on the left side, addressing a man standing to his right, wearing lavish clothing and holding a sword on his right hand, standing by a dead corpse on the bottom right, at his feet. This composition is likely an allegory of the ingratitude of the world, which kills those who love it and attach themselves to it. It might also be an allegory against dueling, criticizing the habits of French nobility of the time, emphasized in particular by the dueling scene that appears in the background, on the right.