The Christ Child, helped by angels, bestows a crown on the believer's heart, which is bedecked with palm branches. Engraving by A. Wierix, ca. 1600.

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

1 print : engraving, with etching ; image 7.8 x 5.5 cm.

O beata sors amoris! Post tot lusus, tot honoris signa, tot laetitiae, diadema regni datur, et cor palmis exornatur immortalis gloriae. Anton Wierx fecit et excud. Translation of lettering: O blessed fortune of love! After so many games, so many tokens of honour, so many of joy, the crown of the kingdom is bestowed, and the heart is adorned with the palms of immortal glory

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, nos. 446

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. 462

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 31771i