Engel met lans, spons en dobbelstenen

A winged angel is depicted behind a stone ledge, holding a long spear tipped with a sponge. Three dice rest on a draped cloth in the foreground, representing the gambling of the Roman soldiers for Christ's garments. This print belongs to a series focusing on the Instruments of the Passion, intended for private devotional contemplation.

Aegidius Sadeler was a central figure in the artistic circle of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, where Mannerist art met Hermetic and alchemical interests. While this is a traditional religious subject, the 'Arma Christi' (Instruments of the Passion) were frequently used in mystical meditation to facilitate a direct, internal experience of the divine, a practice that influenced later Western esoteric thought.