The winged devil is busy painting a shield with depictions of earthly desires: a sack of money, a nude woman, crowns and sceptres. Meanwhile, the young admirer of the diabolical work of art is being shackled. This is Heemskerk’s design for a print engraved by his friend
the printmaker Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert. The same message would later return in the Strong Men: fight the devil and sin with virtuous conduct.