The youth make merry and ignore the warning – Jan Saenredam + Claes Jansz. Visscher, 1596

THE DISSOLUTE YOUTH

Young couples make merry and ignore the warnings of a scholar. Engraving made by Jan Saenredam in 1596 and published by Claes Jansz. Visscher. 2nd state (of 2). Size: 30.3 × 40.1 cm.

This print depicts the tension between youthful exuberance and moral discipline in the late sixteenth-century Dutch Republic. In the foreground we see several young couples indulging in flirtation, idleness and bold familiarity. A separate pair sits beside a thistle bush, a symbol of prickly, provocative love and temptation. Before them lies an overturned, empty jug, alluding to excess and frivolity.

At the centre of the composition stands a group of youths gathered by the façade of a house. Above them, leaning out of an open window, an elderly scholar or minister attempts to admonish them. With a book in his hand and a calming gesture, he tries to bring them to order. The young people respond mockingly: their expressions display amused disdain, and one of the boys points his finger at the admonishing speaker in a defiant gesture meant to undermine his authority.

On the left, in the background, boys and girls dance in a circle around the church, as though the sacred domain were merely a backdrop for their worldly pleasures. This is not simply a cheerful village scene, but behaviour presented as morally objectionable.

Beneath the image runs a moralising Latin poem that interprets the scene. Dancing (“choreae”) is described as a source of scandal and as “burdock” that clings to anyone who engages in it and refuses to let go. The “fierce youth,” the text insists, is unaccustomed to discipline and will not allow itself to be restrained, not even with a hard bit: like an unbroken horse, the young people pull against the reins of moral correction. The poet warns the viewer to fear the long-delayed vengeance of the heavenly Judge (the “Rector of Olympus”), who punishes the guilty with heavy penalties.

Saenredam’s engraving reflects a widespread moral critique within the Calvinist culture of the Dutch Republic, in which dancing, drunkenness and sexual looseness—especially in the vicinity of the church—were seen as signs of spiritual decline. The print functions as a visual sermon: a mirror in which the viewer is urged to practise self-reflection and moderation.

Price: SOLD