The Antwerp painter and draughtsman Marten de Vos produced numerous designs for engravings, chiefly moralizing or religious in theme, following the prescriptions of the Counter Reformation. Here, he addresses the longstanding popular theme of the Seven Acts of Mercy, drawn from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, combined with The Last Judgement, to underscore the Catholic doctrine of the efficacy of good works, rebuffing Protestant assertions of salvation through faith alone. Originally engraved and published in Antwerp by Crispijn de Passe before he fled religious troubles there, the plates then went to the engraver and publisher Adriaen Collaert (around 1560–1618) who issued this state.