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Allegorical printsReset filters
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  • James II and Louis XIV and their allies portrayed as inmates of a lunatic asylum. Etching by R. de Hooghe, 1688.
  • Two merchants and a woman at a table; representing arithmetic. Etching by C. Schut after himself.
  • A woman representing Nature gives a baby to a mother; representing man's vulnerable and naked birth. Engraving by P. Galle, 1563.
  • A female figure with a vacuum pump; representing physics or 'natural philosophy'. Stipple engraving, 1795, after C-N. Cochin the younger, c. 1773.
  • An arch decorated with a panel representing Ferdinand of Spain as Hercules choosing duty over pleasure. Etching by T. van Thulden after Sir P.P. Rubens.
  • A sick horse, representing the baneful effects of protection of trade. Coloured lithograph by J. West Giles after Sir E. Landseer.
  • Personifications of law, medicine and theology argue over the superiority of their respective professions. Engraving by GWHWHNM, ca. 1720.
  • A young woman with a broken pillar; representing fortitude. Etching, 16--.
  • The Christ Child shooting arrows into the believer's heart to conquer the fires of lust. Engraving by A. Wierix, ca. 1600.
  • Mediaeval crusaders holding up the battle-standard of a crusade against cancer. Colour lithograph by Aqullò, 1965.
  • A woman teaching an infant to read; representing grammar. Engraving by A. Vallée after M. de Vos.
  • A woman pours two liquids into a bowl, next to which dividers and a spoon are lying; representing temperance. Engraving after H. Goltzius.
  • A woman looks at herself in her mirror; a man looks through a telescope; representing the sense of sight. Engraving by A. Bosse after himself, ca. 1650.
  • A tree bearing fruit labelled with virtues; representing the life of the Christian. Coloured etching by J. Couse, c. 1780, after J. Bakewell.
  • The medical practitioner as Christ, angel, man and devil. Coloured engravings by J. Gelle after E. van Panderen.
  • A procession of blind and physically disabled people; allegory about sticks: how children are afraid of the rod but disadvantaged adults come to rely on it. Engraving by P. Galle, 1563?.
  • A woman lies in bed, lovesick (representing the Netherlands); attendants try to raise her spirits by showing her a portrait of the newly appointed Stadholder, William III Prince of Orange (subsequently William III King of England). Engraving, ca. 1672.
  • The figure of Philosophy appearing to Boethius. Chromolithograph by Thurwanger after C. Ciappori after a 15th-century painting.
  • Britannia helps a triton to save a shipwrecked woman from the stormy sea. Aquatint after N. de Santiago y de Rotalde.
  • A female figure among astronomical apparatus: representing astronomy. Stipple engraving, 1795, after C-N. Cochin the younger, 1773.
  • A palatial building representing the Academia Caesareo-Leopoldina Naturae Curiosorum, surmounted by a coat of arms; two seated figures in the foreground. Engraving by J.G. Pintz, 17--.
  • A malicious itinerant surgeon extracting stones from a grimacing patient's head; symbolising the extraction of 'folly' (insanity). Engraving after D. Teniers.
  • A woman holding a flower to her face and a vase with flower buds in her left hand, to her right is a peacock; representing the month May. Engraving.
  • A winter landscape with a traveller, a couple in front of the fire place and social gathering; representing winter. Reproduction of an engraving by C. Colin after T. Johannot.
  • Masque in honour of King Charles III of Spain: three chariots carrying pagan deities of the moon, the earth and fire. Etching by A.J. Defehrt after F. Tramullas, 1764.
  • Allegory of surgery. Engraving with etching by B. L. Prevost.
  • A woman making gestures of speech, having a snake around her wrist and a parrot on her head, is standing in a market place with a court scene to her left and a verdict being read out to her right; representing Dialectic. Engraving after M. de Vos.
  • Fame proclaiming the virtues of the remedy Tabonuco Pectoral. Colour lithograph, ca. 1921.
  • A mathematician draws a semi-circle while Minerva watches over him. Engraving by R. Sadeler, 1591, after M. de Vos.
  • A winged woman, standing on a cloud, blowing one of her two trumpets; representing Fame. Etching by G.C. von Prenner.