The Seed Received among the Thorns (1574): Art, History and Details

The Seed Received among the Thorns (1574) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Philip Galle (Flemish, 1537–1612); Gerard P. van Groningen (Netherlandish, active late 1500s).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This is one of a series of four prints portraying the biblical parable of the sower, made in Antwerp (in present-day Belgium) at the end of the 1500s. The parable compares types of soil to people in the world: one hardened; one fickle; one distracted by things of the world; and one with an open heart, ready to accept God. The third sower (here, portrayed as a pilgrim) distractedly throws seeds among thorns. He is surrounded by two female personifications—Cares of the World, and Avarice (extreme greed for money)—indicating the source of his distraction from religious piety. This print relates to a preparatory drawing in the museum’s collection (2012.4).

Object facts

• Title: The Seed Received among the Thorns
• Date: 1574
• Creator attribution: Philip Galle (Flemish, 1537–1612); Gerard P. van Groningen (Netherlandish, active late 1500s)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Collection: PR - Engraving
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2023.128.3

A detail from the museum

The female figure at left, representing Avarice, carries a large, laden moneybag in her right hand.

Collection credit

L. E. Holden Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.