Christ is circumcised in a crowded church. Engraving by H. Goltzius, 1594.

Bible. N.T. Luke 2.21. Joseph and Mary stand watching the operation. Joseph humbly holds his hat in his hands; Mary clasps her hands in prayer, pointing them towards Jesus. In front of the circumcision, an old woman is praying with a Bible open in her lap. The mohel has an eyeglass balanced on his nose and is largely bald, as he is too in the prints in the collection after Guido Reni on the circumcision (see frame nos. 35162 and 35167)

The circumcision scene has a wide reaching symbolic resonance: it shows the first shedding of the blood of Christ, hence the beginning of the Passion; it is the moment Christ is named; furthermore it displays the Judaism through which Christianity must pass

1594

1 print : line engraving ; image 46.4 x 35 cm

Cernis ut octava sit circuncisus Jesus/ Luce puer, tenero accipiens in corpore vulnus,/ Ad normam veteris legis, ritumque receptum,/ S[?]acidis multos observatumque per annos. C. Schoneus. H.G. 1594

Wellcome Collection 22001i