Narratives of Iconoclasm. The Reception of Reformation Image Destruction in the Arts of the Southern and Northern Netherlands between 1566 and 1830

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Esther Meier
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 457138000

The iconoclasm that took place in the Southern and Northern Netherlands was a drastic event, remembered and controversially discussed for centuries afterward. This project will examine the ways in which the destruction of images during the Reformation was adapted and reinterpreted in visual media, and it will investigate the narratives that were pursued. On the basis of previously known as well as numerous unpublished images of the iconoclasm, it will be possible to gain a broad overview of the changing ways in which meaning was attributed to the event and of the interpretative models used to establish meaning. The period under investigation begins with the iconoclastic acts of 1566, followed two years later by the Eighty Years’ War, which led to the independence of the northern provinces, and it ends with the foundation of the Belgian state in 1830, not long after the establishment of the Netherlandish monarchy. Over the course of the centuries, the political, confessional, and social situation changed repeatedly, as did the visual media in which iconoclasm was reflected. The reception of the same event in varying contexts gives reason to believe that no uniform image was passed on; instead, different narratives emerged and circulated within both particular and broader societal groups. The interpretative models of the different groups retrospectively attributed distinct meanings to the destructive event.Although the iconoclasm of the sixteenth century was indeed an expression of a theological conflict that led to the separation of the confessions, the narrative of the iconoclasm was not determined solely by the dichotomy between Catholic and Protestant but also, and probably more strongly, by the varying contexts of reception. The visual reception was not limited to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which are the common focus of art historical research, but gained great relevance in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This later period is especially important because of the political situation in the north and the south, which around 1800 was characterised by instability, dependencies, and the foundation of the Netherlandish and Belgian monarchies.It can therefore be assumed that, under changing social, confessional, and political systems, the multi-layered groups within society (confessions, art lovers, artists, citizens of a nation) inscribed iconoclasm within different discourses. Whereas the early depictions of the sixteenth century discuss theological aspects in the medium of broadsheets, the iconoclastic scenes that were painted after 1600 are integrated into a broader debate about art and culture. Especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the event was reflected in illustrations in history books. This suggests that, by that time, the political dimension was emphasized: the iconoclasm of 1566 was understood as the beginning of a national uprising and of the long process of nation-building.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants