The Corpse
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Corpse
Scripture Reference:
- Romans 8 (further images / scripture text)
Description: Six persons are weeping around a corpse stretched out on the earth in front of a narrow gate with three skulls on top of it; a number of angels look down from a cloud. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant scripture text is Romans 8:23.
Poem:
It looks like Him; but it’s not him,
Who now, invisible to our eyes,
Left the Husk in front of this passage,
And has flown away with the Kernel.
Whereto then? There are two possibilities;
Either to the good or to the evil,
After his status is determined,
Based on his life’s path.
If he followed the right path,
Which God’s finger had shown him,
Then all his suffering has come to an end,
And all his heart’s distress is cured.
But, if he squandered his time,
With all the world’s vain clutter
Then he has missed the path to salvation,
And his prosperity has ended.
His rest, his desire, his status and honor,
And everything that could profit the flesh,
He brings to the front of this passageway,
And has left with his corpse.
At the end the leaf turns,
The side that has lain on top,
So wonderful as a golden blossom,
Has now turned to the color of soot:
And the black, from suffering and grief,
That lay bare during life,
Changed to gold, and nothing else,
That has turned to joy.
So it goes at the other side,
Of the passage way, of this gate, of dying,
When the temporary life is over,
Each should think now what he would like to inherit.
The corpse now, has become valueless for each,
Even though it was celebrated with pleasure,
It will be pushed aside in the earth,
Where it will remain until the Near future,
When it will rise again,
To proceed also in white or black.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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