The Christ Child brings light into a heart discovering snakes and other animals. Engraving by A. Wierix, ca. 1600.

[Antwerp] : Anton. Wierix, [1600?]

1 print : engraving ; image 7.8 x 5.7 cm.

Dum scrutaris in lucernis et vestigas cum laternis cor peccatis obsitum; o quot monstra deprehendis! Iesus, scopas ni prehendis, manet culpis perditum. Anton Wierx fecit et excud. Translation of lettering: While you search among the lights and track the heart besieged by sins, oh how many monsters do you find! Jesus, if you do not find a broom, [the heart] remains lost in wrongs

M. Mauquoy-Hendrickx, Les estampes des Wierix, vol. 1, Brussels 1978, no. 433

Hollstein's Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts, 1450-1700, vol. LXI, The Wierix Family: part III, compiled by Zsuzsanna van Ruyven-Zeman, Rotterdam 2003, no. 449

Eugenio Monegon, 'Jesuit emblematica in China: the circulation of allegorical images in late Ming Fujian, according to Chinese and Western sources', Monumenta serica, 2007

Wellcome Collection 31770i

In the seventeenth century the prints in this series (Cor Jesu amanti sacrum) were used in catechisms by Jesuit preachers in Fujian, China: E. Menegon, op. cit.