Aedificare Super Arenam, from Allegories of the Christian Faith, from Christian and Profane Allegories by Hendrick Goltzius

The central image depicts a man laboring with a spade to construct a massive building on shifting sands, which is already beginning to collapse into the sea. To the left, a man sits among classical ruins and broken columns next to a skeletal figure holding an hourglass and a skull, symbolizing the transience of life. The entire scene is framed by intricate Mannerist strapwork containing numerous Latin biblical citations warning against pride and false security.

This engraving reflects the late 16th-century Dutch preoccupation with Neo-Stoicism and the 'Vanitas' theme, common in both moral philosophy and natural philosophy of the era. It serves as a visual meditation on the Neoplatonic idea of the illusory nature of the material world, suggesting that intellectual or spiritual life built on worldly foundations is destined for ruin.

Inscriptions(Latin)

AEDIFICARE SVPER ARENAM. Omnis qui audit verba mea haec, et non facit ea, similis erit viro stulto, qui aedificauit domum super arenam: et descendit pluuia, et venerunt flumina, et flauerunt venti et irruerunt in domum illam, et cecidit: et fuit ruina illius magna. Matth. 7. 26. Ibi ceciderunt qui operatur iniquitatem: expulsi sunt nec potuerunt stare. Psa. 35. Quid autem vocatis me Domine, Domine: et non facitis que dico? Luc. 6. 48. Omnem palmitem in me non ferentem fructum, tollet eum. Joan. 15. 2. Defluxit vallis tua filia delicata. Jerem. 49. 4. Spes impiorum peribit. Prou. 10. 28. Prosperitas fugax. Non sic impij, non sic: sed tanquam puluis quem proicit ventus a facie terrae. Psal. 1. 4. Propterea Deus destruet te in fine: evellet te, et emigrabit te de tabernaculo tuo, et radicem tuam de terra viventium. Videbunt iusti et timebunt, et super eum ridebunt, et dicent, Ecce homo qui no posuit Deum adiutore suu, sed sperauit in multitudine diuitiarum suaru, et praevaluit in vanitate sua. Psal. 51. 7.

Translation

TO BUILD UPON THE SAND.
Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand: and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell: and great was its fall. Matt. 7:26.

There have they fallen that work iniquity: they are thrust out and could not stand. Psa. 36:12.
Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say? Luke 6:46.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he will take it away. John 15:2.
Your valley has flowed away, O delicate daughter. Jer. 49:4.

The hope of the wicked shall perish. Prov. 10:28.
Fleeting prosperity.

Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth. Psa. 1:4.

Therefore God shall likewise destroy you for ever: he will pluck you out, and transplant you from your dwelling place, and your root out of the land of the living. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say, Behold the man that did not make God his helper, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and prevailed in his vanity. Psa. 52:5–7.

Aedificare Super Arenam, from Allegories of the Christian Faith, from Christian and Profane Allegories

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