Curriculum vitae christianae

Before 1590, three artists, who complemented each other brilliantly, began working on a series of prints depicting themes from the life of Jesus Christ, called Nicomaxia Vitae. The intellectual concept endowed with profound and complex Christian symbolism was provided for the series by the learned Joris Hoefnagel, the central scenes are the work of the painter Hans von Aachen and the engravings based on the models by the then young engraver Aegidius Sadeler. Among the fruits of this collaborative effort was the front page of the series, which Hans von Aachen also executed as a variant drawing, entitled Curriculum vitae christianae (The Life of a Christian). This drawing portrays three Fatal Sisters, spinning the thread of life, accompanied by a text from the Book of Job, accentuating the transience of life. The drawing ranks with the finest examples of Aachen’s draughtsmanship.