The Money Devil

An affordable popular print aimed at a broad audience, this woodcut is a humorous but stinging satire of humanity’s unbridled lust for wealth. At the center a monstrouscreature stands on top of a chest of gold coins, holding money-filled purses and a spiked iron poker. People from different ranks of society—popes, cardinals, bishops, and monks on the left; emperors, kings, noblemen, and soldiers on the right—point their weapons at the money devil. The visual joke derives from a pun in the French inscription, which uses a word that means both “aiming at” and “striving for.” This print appears to be the only surviving impression of this particular composition.