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

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.

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