Centsprent: Les 3 chemins de l’Eternité.

Beschrijving

Catchpenny print. Popular print showing an allegorical map based on Matthew 7:13-14: ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it’ (NIV).In this print’s version, there are not two, but three gates. The narrow gate and thorny path to the holy trinity in the heavenly Jerusalem is walked by pilgrims carrying the cross of Christ and the torch of faith. Through the wide gate go the unbelievers playing music and dancing, but they are led to the burning fire of hell. The third road is parallel to that of the true believers, but they failed on the way and are in the end still led to hell, because ‘death is unforgiving’. This is further explained in the inscription at the bottom: ‘Voyez, voici la Porte large, sans cesse ouverte à tout venant; chacun y entre sans obstacle. Qui veut gagner argent et biens, doit y porter ses pas en hâte. Des milliers ont déjà passé, jaloux d’honneur et de fortune: pour la volupté, l’ambition, il n’est pas un autre chemin; les chants, la danse et la musique forment des passagers l’escorte; petits et grands, pauvres et riches, tous croient en suivant cette route aller dans le sein d’Abraham.’Inscribed ‘F. G.’ (Francois Georgin) at the bottom right.Epinal, Jean-Charles Pellerin (1825).