The Christ Child sleeps as a bridegroom in the believer's heart, making it safe as a bride from wind and storm raging outside. Engraving by A. Wierix, ca. 1600.

[Antwerp] : Anton. Wierix, [1600?]

1 print : engraving, with etching ; image 7.8 x 5.6 cm.

Frustra Boreas minatur, frustra fulmen debacchatur, frustra spumant caerula: dum in corde lectum stravit, atque sponsus dormitavit, tuta ridet sponsula. Anton Wierx fecit et excud. Translation of lettering: In vain the North wind threatens, in vain the thunder runs wild, in vain the sea foams: while in the heart the betrothed has spread his bed and gone to sleep, the bride elect smiles in safety

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. 438

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. 454

J. Peto (ed.), The heart, New Haven and London 2007, p. 113

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 31778i