Death and the Child

Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537)  
In imaginem mortis et infantis

Qualis eras primum, qualis sis deinde futurus,
   Aspice! Quod medium? spes, labor atque nihil.

On an image of death and a child

What were you at the beginning? What will you be in the future? 
   Lo! What about in the meantime? Hope, toil and nothing.

Andrzej Krzycki, Andreae Cricii carmina, ed. by Kazimierz Morawski (Cracow: typis universitatis Jagellonicae, 1888), p. 243. My translation.

Salvator Rosa - L'Umana Fragilità, Fitzwilliam Museum