Dat wat de kreupelen loopen doet (what makes the cripples run): Beggars and cripples on the run - en brunaille

The present lot, with beggars and cripples fleeing in panic was undoubtedly meant as a criticism of the dishonest beggars, who pretended to be crippled or blind. As pointed out by Plokker, op.cit., p. 83, the threat from which the beggars flee is unknown. The theme is possibly related to the proverb "if the inn is burning, one can see who are the crippled". Such criticism of phoney beggars stems from 16th century engravings, such as the series of engravings of 1538 after Cornelis Matsys, in which cripples are shown dancing. The series was engraved by Dirk van Hoogstraten in 1613 (see E. de Jongh & G. Luyten Spiegel van Alledag; Nederlandse genreprenten 1550-1700, exhibition catalogue, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 8 February-4 May 1997, p.113). Van de Venne took up the subject in 1635, when he published his Tafereel van de Belacchende Werelt, in which he depicted fourty-two kind of pretences practised by beggars.