Book Title: Des menschen begin, midden en einde : vertoonende het kinderlyk bedryf en aanwasch in eenenvyftig konstige figuuren, met goddelyke spreuken en stichtelyke verzen / door Joannes Luiken ; met het leven van den autheur

Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712

Image Title: The Claw

Scripture Reference:

• Matthew 16 (further images / scripture text)

Description: A boy shows the claw of an animal he found to a friend, who sits on a wall and has a collection of bones on the ground next him. In the background of this city scene a number of boys are playing a game. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712) was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and for the brief poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant Scripture texts are Matt 16:26-27; Jas 1:8-11; and 1:21.

---

Motto:
The dead are in a bad or good state,
Those living play with their goods.

Poem:
The Claw of the Ox or the Swine,
Is also precious to the Child;
But, when he attains his adult mind,
That Treasure is by him despised;
As the Pious man mocks
What he formerly could love.

(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)

---

.

Click here for additional images available from this book.

Request a high-resolution file (fees apply)

Rights Statement: The online edition of this work in the public domain, i.e., not protected by copyright, has been produced by Pitts Theology Library, Emory University.
Rights Status: No Copyright - United States
Pitts Theology Library provides copyright information as a courtesy and makes no representation about copyright or other legal status of materials in the Digital Image Archive.