Jacob Setting Up a Pillar

Maarten van Heemskerck designed 278 Old Testament prints, many executed by friend Dirck Volckertsz. Coornhert. In Genesis 28:10-22, Jacob dreamed that the ground beneath him was the house of God. He set up his pillow-stone as a commemorative pillar, then anointed it, as shown at upper left. Mirroring the ruins he saw on his Italian sojourn, Heemskerck made the stone a huge slab, possibly indicating the strength of the church and the effort required to attain the throne of God.