Poor Parents, Rich Children, Jacques de Gheyn (II) (rejected attribution), 1580 - 1634

Poor Parents, Rich Children, Jacques de Gheyn (II) (rejected attribution), 1580 - 1634

engraving, h 210mm × w 310mm More details

The parents have sacrificed to educate their son. When, in old age, the struggling couple beseeches him to share some of his riches, he refuses: his own children cost him too much. In doing so, he violates the Fifth Commandment: Honour thy Father and thy Mother. But the parents are also to blame; they should not have spent all their money on their son.