The Seed Falling among the Stones

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

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. In this image of the fickle sower, the seed cannot grow among the stones because the man turns away when challenged by religion (represented as a standing figure with a cross). He is accompanied by two more figures representing Fear and Weakness. The figure representing religion in this image is described specifically as “Persecution,” implying some of the religious troubles during the Protestant Reformation.