FRENCH SCHOOL, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

Among the most widely read books of the sixteenth century, the Adagia by the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536) is a collection of Greek and Latin proverbs. A first edition appeared in 1500, which the author continued to expand until the end of his life. The present drawing illustrates an expression, borrowed from Horatius and based on a story told by Suetonius, with the meaning that something that cannot be achieved quickly and violently should be done slowly (‘Caudae pilos equinae paulatim vellere’, included in Adagiorum chiliades tres, Venice, 1508, p. 93, no. 804).