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Art and Iconoclasm, 1525-1580

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Art and Iconoclasm, 1525-1580 Noordnederlandse kunstl525 -1580 RIJ KS MUSEUM a m s t e r d a m Kunst XdenstoA-^ 6® CO =3 CUO _o •+->(X5 Redactie 03 O J. P. Filedt Kok W. Halsema-Kubes W. Th. Kloek Metinleidingen door/with introductions by B. Dubbe en W. H.Vroom David Freedberg J.R.J.vanAsperendeBoer, M. FariesenJ. P. FiledtKok Staatsuitgeverij ' s - g r a V e n h a g e 69 Artandiconoclasm, 1525-1580 The case of the Northern Netherlands David Freedberg 1 Theory: the question of images Christianity (a fact which appealed to the Reformers of the sixteenth century), but they were rehearsed By 1525 the main lines ofthe argument about in an infinitude of variations throughout the great images that was to torment Europe for the rest of Byzantine iconoclastic controversy of the eighth the century were already firmly drawn. The con- and ninth centuries.® The arguments against images sequences of the argument had their epicentre in included the notion that since God and Christ wer'e the Netherlands; but the rumblings and tremors divine and uncircumscrlbable, It was impossible - would be felt In areas that covered a vast radius, or sacrilegious-to attempt to represent them In from the northernmost reaches of Scandinavia to material and circumscribed form; that the very the straits of Gibraltar and Messina, from the British materiality of the image led to a variety of forms of Isles In the West to Magyar Hungary and onward concupiscence of the senses; that devotion to into the Balkans In the East.' Almost everyone now images in some way obstructed real and direct acknowledges that If there was any single phenome- devotion to saints; that one was dangerously liable non that may be said to mark the commencement to confuse image with prototype, to venerate the of the Revolt of the Netherlands, It was the great image itself, rather than what it represented; that It Iconoclastic events of August, September and was better to have the living image of Christ and his October 1556.^ But it is all too often forgotten that saints In one's mind and heart than to make dead the real target of these events - however they may images of them; and so on.^ The most telling argu- be explained in terms of social, religious and econo- ments in their favour, In the early days, were these: mic motives-were Images: paintings, sculptures, one could have Images precisely because ofthe stained glass, prints; and that in the very period incarnation of Christ. The fact that he was made covered by this exhibition (but especially in the incarnate enabled one to make real Images of him. second and third quarters of 1565) the long-stan- The honour paid to an image referred directly back ding arguments about the use and validity of Ima- to its prototype,® and finally - as Gregory the Great ges, both In the churches and outside them, had was to put it a little later- Images were the books of come to a sudden and threatening head. This is the the illiterate.' Those who could not read would critical background to the present exhibition, along learn the scriptures and the mysteries ofthe faith with a further equally revealing but in fact more by seeing them represented around them. It would painful Issue: What actually happened to the Images be hard to overrate the historical significance of this in 1566 and in the sporadic outbursts of Iconoclasm particular argument. Then, in the middle ages, the in the 1570s, and why were they attacked? three-fold notion that images served to instruct, From the very beginning of the century until his edify and strengthen the memory was emphasized death in 1534, Erasmus expressed some ofthe and elaborated;'" so was the ultimately platonlc most pertinent aspects ofthe problem ofthe use of idea that the material sign could help the ordinary both secular and sacred Imagery. Like many others, human mind to ascend to the spiritual." he criticized provocative imagery and nudity In art; But at the same time the feeling grew that images he objected to drunken or riotous behaviour in the could be abused. Not only were they improperly presence of images (especially on saints' days and used for financial gain, they also proliferated exces- other religious festivals);^ he was gravely concerned sively, rather like relics. Too much money was about the exploltalon of paintings and sculptures spent on paintings and sculptures rather than for gain (in the same way that holy relics were investing in the real images of God, the living poor.'^ exploited); and he had deep reservations about the It was just these arguments, with additions, refine- way in which images were allowed to come in the ments and satirical adornments that were to be way of more direct relations between man and God. repeated over and over again throughout the six- It was preferable to pray to him and to implore him teenth century, from the highest to the lowest without the mediation of Images, relics, and saints levels. In the great princely and royal courts and in in general.^ In these respects Erasmus was no the humblest sermons. To us, many of these argu- different from many other Christian humanists: he ments may seem technical and theological, but it is had no real wish to break with Catholicism, though not hard to imaglae their crucial relevance In an age he saw the abuses of the established Church and of when criticism ofthe malpractices ofthe church led its ministers all too clearly. But his criticism was swiftly to much more fundamental christological firmer in its overall moral stance while at the same and ontological issues. The practical side of these time more benign and genial. It was more learned, momentous questions was embodied in the better articulated and more widely read - despite church's use of religious imagery-which ranged so the persistent but unsuccessful attempts to sup- visibly from sumptuous adornment to the cheaply press his works. More serious and substantive propagandlstic, from unimaginably splendid altar- allegations than these, however, were made by the pieces to scruffy broadsheets. And the issues came three great reformers, as well as by a host of minor to a head In the periodic outbursts of iconoclasm, and usually more virulent writers, like Andreas from isolated acts in the first two decades of the Bodenstein von Karlstadt In Wittenberg and Ludwig sixteenth century to the great German and Swiss Hatzer, the Mennonlte from Zurich.^ The basic movements of the twenties and thirties, the English arguments against images - especially religious and Scottish one of the forties, the occasional images - were old. They dated to the days of early French ones of the fifties and early sixties, and the 70 culminating cataclysm of the Netlierlandish expe- took place throughout the German-speaking coun- the absurd multiplication of relics, and in some riences of 1556. Of all tlie great reformers, Luther tries; and following the final removal of images from cases the problem was identical; he challenged his was the most benign on the subject of images. He Zurich churches in the previous year, Huldrych readers to consider how many paintings they knew was horrified by the outbreal< on iconoclasm instiga- Zwingli gave his views on images most fully in Ein to have been reputedly painted by St. Luke, and ted by his follower Andreas Bodenstein von Karl- Antwort, Valentin CompargegebenlCompar's pointed to devotions to images of clearly apocry- stadt in Wittenberg in 1522. For Luther, the key initial critique of Zwingli's views is unfortunately phal saints. How could images which were so mis- text from the Decalogue Thou shalt not make unto now lost). The great Swiss reformer was far less leading serve as books of the illiterate? Or so unbe- thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing sanguine about images than Luther, and his views coming? After all, prostitutes in their bordellos were that is in heaven above or that is in the earth about them were perhaps to be most influential of often more decently attired than images of the beneath, or that is in the water under the earth' was all for the future development of the reformation. Virgin in the temples of the Papists. Christian ima- to be understood as part of the first commandment, For him, as for the other Swiss reformers, the ges-worship had become no better than pagan and was to be taken specifically in conjunction with Decalogue comprised the full biblical text, and thus image worship. Men and women could only be the insistence that Thou shalt have no other God included the whole of the injunction against graven misled by the sensual materiality of images; better before me'. But in his catechetical writings, and in images. to hear and to attend to the pure word of God. subsequent Lutheran catechisms the injunction on But in the Ansv^er to Valentin Compar, Zwingli These kinds of views were not only disseminated graven images was, in fact, omitted. Whereas for assembled his views into a massive indictment throughout the Netherlands by the early 1560s, men like Karlstadt, the first commandment implied against representational art. Men were not suppo- they were also reproduced and modified - either that one should have no images in churches (or, for sed either to worship or to serve images. There substantially or only very slightly-in any number of that matter, in private houses), Luther's primary were far too many of them in churches and in pri- treatises and sermons. I have concentrated on concern was with the abuse of religious imagery.
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