How Does Rembrandt Bring Out the Characteristics of Protestant Devotionalism in His Works of Art?

The Milkmaid (1658-lx)
By Jan Vermeer.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
An illustration of Protestant
virtue and pious living.

Development OF VISUAL ART
For details of art movements
and styles, see: History of Art.
For a chronological guide,
see: History of Fine art Timeline.

What was the Reformation? How Did It Affect Art?

The Protestant Reformation was a revolt against abuses and other forms of abuse perpetrated by the Papacy and the Church in Rome. The actual spark which ignited the revolt was Pope Leo X's decision to launch a entrada in Germany for the auction of "indulgences" (finer permits allowing sinners to purchase their fashion into heaven), in order to finance the building of the new Saint Peter's Basilica, in Rome. The Reformation began on Oct 31, 1517, when the German Augustinian monk Martin Luther (1483–1546) nailed his 95-point manifesto on the door of All Saints Church, Wittenberg, Deutschland, and led to a split in Christianity betwixt Roman Catholics and Protestants. Protestantism (which comprised 4 basic strands: Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican and Anabaptist), took root in Northern Europe in countries associated with the Northern Renaissance, such as north and west Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Britain and Scandinavia. In plough, this led to a new type of Christian art which historic the Protestant religious agenda, and diverged radically from the High Renaissance art of Italy, Spain, Naples and other areas of southern Europe, which remained Roman Catholic. The form and content of Protestant art - in item, painting - reflected the plainer, more unvarnished and more personal Christianity of the Reformation movement. Thus large scale works of Biblical art were no longer commissioned by Protestant church bodies. And while Protestant art collectors continued to committee religious paintings privately from artists, notably Rembrandt (1606-69), overall there was a huge reduction in the amount of religious art produced in Protestant countries. This fall in ecclesiastical patronage forced many Former Masters to diversify into secular types of art, such as history painting, portraiture, genre painting and even so lifes. Simply although overt religious art was banned or frowned upon by the Reformation - witness the iconclastic "beeldenstorm" of 1556 - a need grew upward for small-scale-calibration works containing a Christian bulletin, or moral lesson. In Holland, during the Dutch Baroque era, artists met this demand past producing a type of still life painting, known as "Vanitas", as well as genre scenes which promoted piety and a devout lifestyle. The difference betwixt Protestant and Catholic art was further emphasized past the Council of Trent (1545-63), which initiated Catholic Counter-Reformation fine art, and in the process issued a new set of aesthetics for a more stringent manner of painting and sculpture. (Annotation: Luther, the leader of the Reformation, was excommunicated by the Pope in 1520, but was given protection and asylum by Frederick the Wise (1463–1525), Elector of Saxony.)

Characteristics of Protestant Reformation Art

The primary characteristics of Reformation art sprang from Protestant theology which focused on the individual relationship between the worshipper and God. This emphasis was reflected in the number of common people and ordinary everyday scenes that were portrayed in Protestant fine art. Too Protestantism taught that the issue of conservancy was reserved exclusively for God: it could not occur as a result of earthly intervention past the Vatican or any other ecclesiastical authority. Protestant art duly reflected this education. In addition, a number of important 'mysteries of the faith' were downplayed or ignored by Protestant theologians and artists - including The Immaculate Conception, The Proclamation of the Virgin, The Transfiguration of Christ, to name but three. Transubstantiation (the transformation of the Communion bread and vino into the trunk and blood of Christ) was another key area of disagreement between Luther and Rome. Roman Catholicism believed in a strict interpretation of this doctrine, and therefore tended to utilise Crucifixion scenes for their altarpieces, while Protestant Churches - at least those who tolerated effigy painting - insisted on a symbolic pregnant backside the Eucharist, so preferred scenes of the Final Supper.

In full general, as far as other Biblical themes were concerned, Protestant art tended to avoid: grandiose images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary; big set-piece scenes from the Bible (like the Passion of Christ); images of the Saints; and, in item, depictions of the Popes and other senior clergy. Instead, Protestant fine art focused on humble depictions of biblical scenes and moralistic depictions of contemporary everyday life.

See also the architectural paintings of Emanuel de Witte (1615-1692) and Pieter Jansz Saenredam (1597-1665), famous for their whitewashed church building interiors.

Not all Protestants had identical views on what Church building art was adequate: Lutherans, for example, tended to exist more tolerant than Calvinists, who banned all figurative altarpiece art and considered most religious images to be idolatrous. Some forms of art, however, were seen equally more than in keeping with a small, personal arroyo to religion: they included book illustration and various forms of printmaking, such as engraving and etching (centered on Antwerp), all of which were used by Protestant authorities to convey their religious ideas to their congregations, and religious educational activity into the homes of the common people. In particular, these small-scale types of fine art permitted the development of a specifically Protestant iconography, which included Protestant-fashion images of Christ, the Holy Family, Saints and Apostles, likewise as illustrations of all the people and events in the Bible.

In elementary terms, Protestants removed public fine art from their churches and urban spaces, preferring instead to champion their faith via pocket-sized-scale, humble Biblical images in diverse printed formats, including illustrated bibles. At the same time, Protestant societies embraced a low-key manner of fine art which promoted the demand for personal piety as well every bit a respect for the unvarnished dazzler of God's creations, including people created in His prototype. In contast, the Catholic Counter-Reformation fully supported inspirational or educational church art - meet, for case, the glorious fresco paintings and other quadratura works in Rome - and continued to champion its ain brand of "sacred art", which illustrated important issues of Cosmic dogma, or celebrated Cosmic traditions, notably the liturgy, the sacraments and the saints.

History of Protestant Reformation Art

Although the reaction of churchmen, congregations and secular leaders varied considerably from country to land, and from region to region, in full general, the Protestant Reformation triggered a wave of iconoclastic destruction of Christian imagery. Several Protestant leaders, notably John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli, ordered that churches exist stripped of their pictures and statues. If a painting (like a mural) could not exist removed information technology was whitewashed over; where sculpture was office of the architectural fabric of the building (either a column statue or a relief sculpture), it was defaced or smashed, equally were endless examples of beautiful stained drinking glass art. Secondary altars were dismantled or physically removed. All reliquaries (containers of relics), gilded altar furnishings, and ciboria (containers of items used in the Eucharist) were melted down, while large bonfires were used to burn paintings, sculptures, ecclesastical fixtures and other objects, including: triptychs and larger polyptychs, other panel-paintings, most examples of wood etching, including statues, carved choir stalls and confessionals, missals and other illuminated manuscripts, and vestments. This iconoclasm was intensified during the so-called "Second Reformation" of nearly 1560-1619.

There were comparatively few instances of churches actually being destroyed. To deprive them of their "Catholic" identity, all that was needed was to remove their "Catholic" decorations, and insert a pulpit in a prominent position. New churches were designed more as auditoriums focused more on the pulpit and less on the chantry. Ornament was generally kept to a minimum, although some architects - such as Christopher Wren (1632-1723) - were more than Loftier Church than others. Paradoxically, the removal of "Catholic" compages and its replacement with less imposing Protestant designs, may have been a factor in the spread of pagan Neoclassical architecture two centuries later.

Political leaders in Protestant countries proved highly supportive of the Reformation, not least because it enabled them to accept over the lands and wealth of the Roman Catholic Church and its monastic orders. For case, when the shrine of S. Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral was dismantled, it yielded 24 cartloads of treasure, including numerous exquisite items of medieval goldsmithing, which was promptly melted down for Henry VIII's treasury. The Reformation also gave secular rulers far greater control over the engagement of bishops and other clergy.

Following considerable turmoil, a degree of reconciliation of Catholics and Protestants was achieved in 1555 with the Religious Peace of Augsburg, which granted freedom of worship to Protestants. This compromise did not apply to art, however, and both painting and sculpture, as well as architecture, continued to be used as propaganda by the two rival Churches.

Protestant Art of the 16th-Century

Both the German Renaissance and the Netherlandish Renaissance were coming to an stop by the fourth dimension the Reformation gathered momentum. In Federal republic of germany, near of the leading artists like Martin Schongauer (c.1440-91), Matthias Grunewald (1470-1528), Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538), Hans Baldung Grien (1484-1545) and others, were either deceased or in their concluding years. The aforementioned could be said of the state of affairs in Holland - whose greatest chief - Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) - had just died, and of 16th-century Flemish Painting, whose stars included Quentin Massys (1465-1530), Jan Provost (1465-1529), Jan Gossaert (1478-1532), Joachim Patenier (1480-1525), and Joos van Cleve (1490-1540).

Hans Holbein the Younger

Born in Augsburg, Deutschland, where he trained under his father Holbein the Elder, Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) was active in Lutheran Basel simply more often than not in London, where he painted Henry Eight and Thomas Cromwell, both of whom were busy establishing the English Reformation and organizing the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His masterpieces include: Portrait of Erasmus (1523, National Gallery, London); Portrait of Sir Thomas More (1527, Frick Drove); Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (1528, National Gallery, London); The Merchant Georg Gisze (1532, Gemaldegalerie, SMPK, Berlin); Portrait of Thomas Cromwell (1532-4, National Portrait Gallery, London); The Ambassadors (1533, National Gallery, London) and Portrait of Henry VIII (1536, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid).

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Only the great Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elderberry (c.1525-1569) was around to put his postage on Protestant-style painting in the Low Countries, with a series of great genre paintings (including tavern scenes), and to laissez passer on his skills to pupils like Frans Snyders (1579-1657). Bruegel'south best genre works include: Netherlandish Proverbs (1559, Gemaldegalerie, SMPK, Berlin); Hunters in the Snowfall (1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); and Peasant Wedding Feast (1568, KM, Vienna). His best religious works - all set in commonplace landscapes or situations include: Tower of Babel (1563, KM, Vienna); Massacre of the Innocents (1565-67, KM, Vienna); and Parable of the Blind (1568, Capodimonte Museum, Naples).

In fact, Flanders was (mostly) a Roman Catholic country, which was dominated by a small number of affluent (if declining) commercial centres including Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres. During the mid-16th century, a Protestant lawyer fled Antwerp for Germany, in lodge to escape religious persecution. In Germany, he fathered a son who duly returned to Antwerp to become the greatest e'er exponent of Cosmic Counter-Reformation fine art - his proper noun was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).

Protestant Art of the 17th-Century

Dutch Baroque art of the 17th century exemplified the new forms of Protestant painting. It illustrated the down-to-world, everyday context for Biblical subjects, required by the Protestant government; it gave nativity to many of the best genre painters of the 17th century - whose works offered clear moral guidance on how to live a pious life - and to several of the all-time still-life painters we have e'er seen.

Protestant Biblical Painting

This is exemplified by the piece of work of Rembrandt (1606-69), whose religious paintings e'er emphasized the man individuals involved, rather than whatever grandiose doctrinal problems. Examples include: Bathsheba Holding King David'due south Letter (1654, Louvre, Paris); The Jewish Helpmate (c.1665-8, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); and Render of the Prodigal Son (1666-69, Hermitage Museum).

Protestant Genre Painting

Dutch Realist Genre Painting - mostly pocket-sized oil paintings of everyday scenes, containing a covert Christian or moral message - involved some of The netherlands's greatest Old Masters. Tavern scene painters included Adriaen Brouwer (1605-38), Adriaen van Ostade (1610-85) and Jan Steen (1626-79); domestic scene painters included Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656), David Teniers the Younger (1610-90), Gerard Terborch (1617-81), Gabriel Metsu (1629-67) and Pieter de Hooch (1629-83). See, for case, moralistic pictures similar The Concert (1625, Borghese Gallery, Rome) past Gerrit van Honthorst, Couple Flirting Outdoors (c.1650, Stedelijk Museum, Leiden) by Jan Steen, and Female parent Lacing Her Bodice Beside a Cradle (1662, SMPK, Berlin) by Pieter de Hooch.

The greatest genre-painter notwithstanding was the Delft painter Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), whose masterpieces include: The Lilliputian Street (1657-58, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam); The Milkmaid (1658-60, Rijksmuseum); Woman Holding a Balance (1662-63, National Gallery, Washington DC); Young Adult female with a Water Jug (1662, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY); Adult female with a Pearl Necklace (1663, Gemaldegalerie, SMPK, Berlin); and The Lacemaker (1669-seventy, Louvre, Paris).

Protestant Still Life Painting

Protestant notwithstanding lifes were basically symbolic pictures, containing a covert religious narrative. A particular example is the "Vanitas still life painting" - derived from Ecclesiastes 12:8 "Vanity of vanities saith the preacher, all is vanity" - which typically contains symbolic images (including skulls, snuffed candles, hourglasses with the sand running out, watches, collywobbles etc.,) to remind the observer of the transience of mortal life, compared to the permanence of truthful Christian values.

Specialist still life artists included: Frans Snyders (1579-1657), who is noted for even so lifes of dead game and meat, crammed with religious allusions and moral pointers; Harmen van Steenwyck (1612-56), the leading vanitas painter; Willem Claesz Heda (1594-1681), an exponent of monochrome banketje; Pieter Claesz (1597-1660), a specialist in ontbijtjes (breakfast nevertheless lifes); Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606-83) and Willem Kalf (1619-93), who specialized in decorative nevertheless lifes; Samuel Van Hoogstraten (1627-78), whose speciality was interiors with deep linear perspective; and Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750), arguably the greatest ever female flower painter.

Among the greatest Protestant still-lifes are: The Vanities of Human Life (1645) by Harmen Steenwyck; A Vanitas All the same Life (1645) past Pieter Claesz; Breakfast of Crab (1648, Hermitage, St Petersburg) by Willem Claesz Heda; Nonetheless Life with Chinese Porcelain Jar (1662, SMPK, Berlin) by Willem Kalf; The Slippers (1654) past Samuel Hoogstraten; Decorative Yet Life in front end of Architecture (A Dessert) (1640, Louvre, Paris) by Jan Davidsz de Heem.

Protestant Reformation art can be seen in some of the best art museums around the world.

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Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/protestant.htm