The Whipping-top
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Whipping-top
Scripture Reference:
- Matthew 16 (further images / scripture text)
Description: A youth whips his top to make it spin, while a younger boy and girl watch and a couple comments on this scene. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712) was generally responsible for drawing and etching this emblem (Pieter Sluiter [1675-1713] drew the figures in the foreground) and for the brief poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant Scripture texts are Matt 16:24-25; Rom 8:12-14; and James 1:2-4.
Motto:
One does not strike to kill it,
But keeps life going that way.
Poem:
The Whipping-top, driven by the whip,
Is supported during its life:
So likewise the human heart,
Through the persistence of many strikes,
Driven for God’s approval,
So that it does not die.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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Rights Status: No Copyright - United States
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