Juxtapositions V

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He is a stealer.

Juxtaposition of two prints, both showing hand gestures that indicate thievery.
Commedia dell’arte knows a vast array of postures and gestures by which actions and characters are communicated to the audience. A well-known hand gesture that signifies thievery and/or greed is taken over by Paulus Fürst in his famous depiction of Doctor Schnabel, plague doctor from Rome, who, as the poem tells us, is just as lured by gold as the greedy dottores from the theatre plays.
Left: Detail from Le docteur est rempli de si grande séance, anonymous French engraving by Jacques Honervogt, 17th c. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Right: Der Doctor Schnabel von Rom, engraving by Paulus Fürst (1656), British Museum, London.

ANONYME FRANCAIS XVIIè s, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, L 85 LR/BIS3 Recto – https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl020578556 – https://collections.louvre.fr/CGU

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