The Seed Received among the Thorns, from the Parable of the Sower

c. 1573

The Seed Received among the Thorns, from the Parable of the Sower, c. 1573. Gerard van Groeningen (Flemish). Black chalk, gray wash, and brown ink, on cream laid paper; traces of transfer; sheet: 19.7 x 25.5 cm (7 3/4 x 10 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2012.4 This design for a print is from a suite portraying the biblical parable of the sower. 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, a pilgrim) distractedly throws his seeds among thorns. He is surrounded by two female personifications—Cares of the World, and Avarice (extreme greed for money). Behind them, the fourth sower successfully plants his crop. The content and its presentation exemplify the instructive tone of the period’s moral discourse. The stage-like format of this drawing recalls enacted "plays of meaning," or moralizing plays, performed in the Netherlands at the time.