The Stone Sawyer
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Stone Sawyer
Scripture Reference:
- Job 7 (further images / scripture text)
Description: The stone sawyer sits on a small block of stone while he pulls a large saw back and forth through the stone he is cutting; a tub of water with a dipstick is next to him. On the opposite side of a canal, a barge, loaded with blocks of stone, is docked at a stone yard (right background). The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712) was responsible for drawing this emblem and for creating the motto and poem that follow. Jan Luiken and/or his son Casper Luiken (1672-1708) were responsible for its etching. The attendant scripture text is Job 7:1-3.
Motto:
All in time
At the end of the struggle.
Poem:
Patient work, steady on,
It will at last be done:
O Heavy stone of life’s times!
Day and night pull back and forth,
The saw of time sinks bit by bit,
Until soul and body separate.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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