The Good Shepherd
After David Vinckboons Netherlandish
Claes Jansz. Visscher Dutch
Not on view
Although David Vinckboons made only three prints himself, his designs were the basis for more prints than any other Netherlandish artist in the early seventeen century. Pieter Serwouters was responsible for more two dozen of these, mainly engravings and etchings of both religious and secular subjects.
The subject here refers to a Dutch proverb, which is inscribed below the print. A man is dressing his wife in trousers, ceding power to her – so that she is quite literally is "the one wearing the pants in the family". It is part of long tradition of prints illustrating the power of women including religious and mythological stories, as well as vignettes from contemporary life as here.
The print is based on a drawing by Vinckboons in the Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels. A second impression of this print (17.50.15-124) is an undescribed third state with an English translation of the inscription.
