Good and Bad Ways to Become Rich
From the collection of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
Fortune (Fortuna) walks at the front in a procession of personifications. In her hands a begging bowl and a purse. Fortune is blind and winged: she has both positive and negative effects and distributes these without distinction. Behind Fortune walk Labor (Labor), Diligence (Diligentia) and Frugality (Parsimonia). These are personifications representing qualities with which one can collect money in an honest way. Behind them walk Deceit (Fraus), Lie (Mendacium) and Violence (Vis). These are personifications depicting the bad ways to come by money. The print has a Latin inscription and a Dutch and French inscription in letterpress. The print is part of a series with the subject the misery that wealth brings.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s own description
