ORThe Open Room
Digital gallery
Back to the NGA collection
Drawn using pen and brown ink on cream-colored paper, a robed man to our right holds up both hands and looks away from a plant in this vertical composition. A hood covers the man’s head, and he has a long beard. His hands shield his face from the plant to our left, which is painted with watercolor to give it green leaves and stems and dark pink flowers. A handwritten name above the man reads, "Pythagoras." The plant is labeled “Fabe.” A crack splits the ground from the bottom right corner of the paper across the page.
Read the visual description

Drawn using pen and brown ink on cream-colored paper, a robed man to our right holds up both hands and looks away from a plant in this vertical composition. A hood covers the man’s head, and he has a long beard. His hands shield his face from the plant to our left, which is painted with watercolor to give it green leaves and stems and dark pink flowers. A handwritten name above the man reads, "Pythagoras." The plant is labeled “Fabe.” A crack splits the ground from the bottom right corner of the paper across the page.

National Gallery of Art · Drawing

"Do Not Eat Beans" [fol. 25 recto]

French early 16th Century

Date
1512/1514
Medium
pen and brown ink with watercolor on laid paper
Dimensions
overall: 16.3 x 10.7 cm (6 7/16 x 4 3/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Accession number
2006.11.45
Credit line
Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner
Time span
1501 to 1550
Department
CG-E
Original NGA record Wikidata

Portfolio and series

Series
Speculum principis (Mirror for Princes)

Subjects and terms

  • French
  • plant
  • Flower
  • Costume
  • Philosophy
  • Man
Provenance

(Sale, London, Sotheby's, 13 July 1937, lot 64); (sale, London, Sotheby's, 15-17 November 1937, lot 546); (sale, London, Maggs Bros., Ltd., catalogue 709, 1941, no. 30); (purchased by William H. Schab Gallery via Paul Graupe); purchased by Ian Woodner, New York, by 1973; by inheritance to his daughters, Andrea and Dian Woodner, New York, 1990.

Inscription

upper right in pen and brown ink: Pythagoras.; center left in pen and brown ink: Fabe

Watermarks

Briquet 13542 (cut off)

NGA object ID 86044. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.