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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileafter Hendrick Goltzius
Mary sits on the ground cradling the infant Jesus, while Joseph is visible in the background tending to their donkey beside crumbling stone architecture. A prominent, detailed tree dominates the center of the composition, set against a vast mountainous landscape with a distant waterfall. The figures are rendered with the dynamic, muscular forms characteristic of the artist's mannerist style.
The Latin inscription elevates this biblical scene to a cosmological level, identifying the infant Christ as the 'Cæli opifex' (heavenly craftsman or Demiurge) who governs the universe and created the sun and moon. This reflects late Renaissance Neoplatonic efforts to harmonize Christian theology with the philosophical concept of a governing universal architect as found in the Hermetic and Platonic traditions.
HGoltzius Inuent. Aº 1589 Herodem fugiens trepida cum virgine matre Cæli opifex infans lento asportatur asello Ægypti tolerans latebras, qui cuncta gubernat Omnia collustrat, cuius sol, lunaq[ue] plasma est. F.E.
Translation
H. Goltzius invenit, Aº 1589 Fleeing Herod with the trembling virgin mother, The infant creator of heaven is carried away on a slow donkey, Enduring the hiding places of Egypt, he who governs all things, Illuminates all things, whose creation the sun and moon are. F.E.
Marsilio Ficino
The inscription's description of the infant as the creator of the sun and moon who 'governs all things' mirrors Neoplatonic concepts of the Logos or Demiurge found in Ficino's commentaries on light and the cosmos.
Object
Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem
Engraving
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
https://hdl.handle.net/21.12102/a440086a-2ba3-bff4-ad74-7bc311711965
Public domain
2502 × 3265 px
90f48c756039591144f59e6c0543dffcc635d59a
April 20, 2019
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.