Search

Contains fulltext : 224750pub.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) In 1675 the prolific etcher and engraver Romeyn de Hooghe designed, produced, and published a print depicting several disasters that had scourged the Republic of the Seven United Provinces from 1672 onwards. The print offers interesting insights in contemporary concerns that accumulated during All Saints Flood in 1675. In recent historical studies, the print has been used to illustrate contemporary belief in divine providence, and faith of the Dutch that history would take a turn for the better. But the iconography of the print is detailed and complex, and many of its vital elements have been ignored or were misinterpreted. Careful examination from an art historical perspective reveals that the print does not illustrate faith in a good outcome. On the contrary, De Hooghe accuses his fellow countrymen of a lack of faith using the New Testament story of a storm on the Sea of Galilee as a biblical parallel. Secondly, De Hooghe identifies discord as the cause of the current sad state of the Dutch Republic. He even implies that those responsible are the wealthy citizens in the prosperous Province of Holland who have neglected to take care of the republic’s poorer members. 13 augustus 2020 22 p.

Contains fulltext : 219125.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) In 1682, the highly regarded artist Theodoor Cornelisz van der Schuer (1634–1707) painted a canvas for the boardroom of the plague hospital in Leiden. He transformed well-known depictions of the plague to create an image of an unspecified hospital in a timeless setting. More than simply an image of a hospital, the painting is also an allegory of human dependence on God. Focusing on the plague-stricken figure of Charity, the allegory visualizes moral ideas that were disseminated in a 1526 tract on poor relief written by Juan Luis Vives. In the painting, the plague becomes a symbol of human deprivation, and by depicting Charity as a plague victim, van der Schuer projects the idea that humility is an essential part of charity. Since Vives was widely known throughout the seventeenth century, we may assume that his ideas were familiar to the hospital’s regents. And although van der Schuer disguises Charity as a plague victim, visitors to the boardroom probably recognized the personification nevertheless. Images of Charity were ubiquitous, especially in the context of hospitals, where they reflected the actions of the regents donating their time and dedicating their skills to the destitute. In reality, the hospital probably did not ever house plague victims; although the disease remained a constant threat, the institution served different kinds of patients. Combining a scene of the plague with a broad-reaching allegory, the painting proved relevant for decades to come. 28 p.

This article focuses on the badges of Our Lady of Aarschot (Brabant, Belgium) which entwine secular and religious iconographies through the use of heraldic signs and devices.The cheap mass-produced...

The iconography of charity (caritas) underwent considerable changes in fourteenth-century Italy, signifying a break with the traditional transalpine depictions of love personified. Some iconographical aspects of the French Caritas Misericordia (or Mercy Charity) were transferred to the Madonna of Mercy, also known as the sheltering-cloak Madonna. With her cloak spread to protect the needy and her devotees, the Madonna of Mercy likewise personifies benevolence, leaving room for artists to develop an allegorical type of Charity. Significantly, the earliest Mother of Mercy images show the Virgin extending her cloak with her own hands as Mercy Charity. The meaning of the gesture is multifaceted. The Virgin is not just offering a cloak, but sharing hers. Because of the association of textiles with flesh, and therefore with the incarnation, textile relics were supposed to have protective powers. With the garment, Charity—and later the Virgin—provides the pauper with a protective layer. The development o...

In the collections of Radboud University Library are two sixteenth-century manuscripts that contain internal, or mental, pilgrimages through the city of Jerusalem. One element sets them apart from the popular devotion known as the Stations of the Cross: both texts mention the exact distances between the sites. This makes it theoretically possible for the readers to duplicate the journey of Christ to Mount Calvary while trying to imagine his suffering. The mental pilgrims could earn remissions of temporal punishment 'as if they had physically visited the holy places'. Pilgrimage exercises were not limited to sites in Jerusalem, but focused on relics in Rome as well. Apparently, the mental pilgrimage gave the devotee freedom to 'move' beyond geographical and temporal boundaries. Additionally, the exercises combine traditional meditations on the Life and Passion of Christ with popular fifteenth-century devotions such as the Sorrows of the Virgin and the rosary. Keywords: Christ; Jerusalem; mental pilgrims; Mount Calvary; Radboud University Library; Rome