Otto van Veen

Inscribed by the artist within the design, at lower center, in brown ink, "formicae" (ants). On the album page below the design in another hand, in brown ink, "Multiplex avaritiae praetextus (title) / Ille gravem duro terram qui vertit aratro, / Perfidus hic caúpo, miles, naútaeque, per omne / Aúdaces mare qúi cúrrúnt, hác mente laborem / Sese ferre, senes út in otia túta recedant, / Ajúnt, cúm sibi sint congesta cibaria, sicút / Farvúla, namque exemplo est, magni formica laboris / Ore trahit quodcúmque potest, atqúe addit acervo, / Quam strúit, haud ignara, ac non incauta fúturi / Quae simul inversúm contristat aquariús annúm / Non usquam prorepit, et illis utitúr antê / Quaesitos patiens" (Yon farmer, who with tough plough turns up the heavy soil, our rascally host here, the soldiers, the sailors who boldly scour every sea, all say that they bear toil with this in view, that when old they may retire into secure ease, once they have piled up their provisions; even as the tiny, hard-working ant [for she is their model] drags all she can with her mouth, and adds it to the heap she is now building, because she is not unaware and not heedless of the morrow. Yet she, as soon as Aquarius saddens the upturned year, stirs, out no more but uses the store gathered beforehand, patient creature that she is). The text is from Horace, "Satires", Book I, 1, lines 28-38.