The three children in the fiery furnace

Vos, Maarten de, after

Engraving on paper of the three children in the fiery furnace from a series of Old Testament stories, published by Jan Sadeler (1550-1600) after a design by Maarten de Vos (1532-1603), probably in Cologne c. 1582. Latin text inscribed below refers to Daniel 3. For refusing to worship a golden statue of the king (in the background), Nebuchadnezzar II cast Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into a fiery furnace heated to seven times its normal temperature. The men were miraculously saved by an angel of God, the king points excitedly at the four figures. In the foreground, the soldiers in charge of stoking the flames are consumed by the heat of the blaze.