From Pierre Coustau's Pegme 'Sur le paintre Protogenes: Vaquer à l'estude moderement' (Lyon, 1560)

This emblem from Pierre Coustau's Pegme, published in Lyon in 1560, is entitled 'Sur le paintre Protogenes: Vaquer à l'estude moderement'. The woodcut figure shows the obsessive artist unwilling to stop working on his painting even for a moment, and in the full emblem the accompanying verse points to the parallel between this foolish behaviour and that of those who study too hard, and warns of the dangers of so doing:

Ceux qui n'ont point moyen ny temperance
En leur estude ilz se font un grand tort
Car bien souvent, pour un desir immense
De trop savoir sont cause de leur mort.

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