De vier overlieden van de Handboog- (St Sebastiaan) doelen te Amsterdam, 1653 1812

In this engraving, Joachim Jan Oortman Jr. captures the four leaders of the St. Sebastian archers guild in Amsterdam, a brotherhood devoted to the iconic saint. Note the recurving bow depicted on the guild's signboard. The bow itself is not merely a tool for sport or war. The recurving bow, with its limbs arching back upon themselves, echoes the cyclical nature of life and death—of tension and release. Consider, too, the figure of Saint Sebastian, whose body, pierced by arrows, embodies both suffering and resilience. The arrows recall similar iconographies, such as Cupid's arrows of love, or even the arrows wielded by Apollo, god of both healing and plague. This ambivalence reveals a deeper, more primal ambivalence inherent in the human condition. The bow and arrow, then, are far more than simple objects. They are potent symbols of humanity's eternal struggle.