Engel en huilend kind bij een zonnewijzer 1628

Christoffel van Sichem II created this small woodcut, "Angel and crying child by a sundial," sometime in the early to mid-17th century. It stages a confrontation between innocence and mortality. The winged angel, bathed in light, pulls a weeping child away from a sundial, a common memento mori. The sundial, set amidst a formal garden with a church spire in the background, represents the ordered world of human time, while the angel suggests a realm beyond earthly concerns. Made in the Netherlands during the Dutch Golden Age, a period marked by both immense prosperity and anxieties around earthly vanity, the image seems to capture this tension. Such prints served both devotional and decorative purposes, often finding their way into albums and personal collections. To fully understand the print’s meaning, we need to consider the cultural associations of angels, childhood, and time in the 17th century, consulting a wide range of historical sources and print collections. This will allow us to appreciate the complex interplay of ideas that informed its creation.