The Blind Beggar Tricked by Lazarillo

Thomas Wyck illustrated several scenes from the anonymous Spanish picaresque novella, The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of his Fortunes and Adversities. Treated as a heretical tract in Catholic Spain (where the Spanish Inquisition was still active), the tale was also published in Antwerp in 1555. In this etching, the unscrupulous protagonist is apprenticed to a blind man, on whom he practices the arts of stealing and subterfuge.