Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits, Plate 9

Last plate of a group of 9 plates with small domestic scenes, engraved by Jan van Haelbeeck, which were either were made for, or reused by Jean Leclerc around 1615 in the sonnet series ‘Enigmes Joyeuses pour les Bons Esprits’, in which they were each published with a sonnet that hinted at the double meaning of the activities. In this plate, a working-class woman pulls a bucket with water from a stone well, whila a man looks at her from a window in one of the buildings that surround her. Most of the plates in the series accompanied one of the sonnets of the Enigmes, which mentioned or described the activities illustrated, while also hinting to a slightly more erotic meaning of the activities described. This double meaning of the images and sonnets of the Enigmes helps explain why most copies of the series, although very popular and influential in their day, have been lost. The sonnet corresponding to this image, if it existed, has not been identified.