JACOB DE WET (Haarlem 1610 – Cologne 1677)
The Baptism of the Eunuch
signed and dated in the lower left JW v. Wet with the JW conjoined / 1632
oil on panel
23 7/8 x 29 ¼ inches (61.5 x 75.5cm.)
DID THE DUTCH INVENT PROTEST ART?
Art takes on many rolls, sometimes social and often political. Great artists have used their talent to protest against political action (Picasso, Guernica) or highlight the need for social action (Keith Haring, Ignorance=Fear). Protest art is by definition a defiance against the politics or social issues of the day. It very much feels like a 20th century phenomenon, but was it really?
The Reformation, otherwise known as the Dutch revolution was a pivotal moment in The Netherlands. The Spanish (Catholics) had been strictly controlling the country and thus religious freedom was limited to non-existent. During the Eighty Year’s War, (1568- 1648) the Dutch Reformists fought to gain their freedom and thus their religious freedom from the Catholics.
In the years prior to the Reformation, although there are huge amounts of art depicting religious scenes, you would be hard pressed to find many depictions of The Baptism of the Eunuch. This scene depicts the prophet Philip baptising a eunuch, said to be serving under Candace, Queen of Ethiopia, in a river. The story suggests that Philip encountered the eunuch reading the work of Isaiah and Philip helps him to better understand the passage. The eunuch then asks Philip to baptise him in God’s name. This biblical scene from the New Testament became very popular during the early 17th century. To say it was a fashionable subject to paint (and clients to buy) would be an understatement. Pieter Lastman painted it no less than four times, Rembrandt twice and Abraham Bloemaert, Rombout van Troyen (1630), Andries and Jan Both (1640), Aelbert Cuyp (1642), David Colijns, Herman Nauwicx (1641) and Salomon Koninck all have a version, not to mention our beautiful rendition by Jacob de Wet (1632), painted just 16 years before the Treaty of Munster in 1648. But what brought about this sudden interest in this scene?
The Catholic church, during this period, did not really support the baptism of adults. Even though the event is clearly detailed in the Bible, they were more interested in the control of their subjects, thus putting fear into people that if their babies were not baptised at birth, they would then go straight to hell or in the least be stuck in purgatory. Given the infant mortality rate, you can imagine this alone was a strong incentive for conversion and kept the public ‘in line’ with the church. Catholics also in this time, felt a person who knowingly, wilfully and unrepentantly rejects baptism has no hope of salvation. So, ‘forced conversion’ was only an act and those who converted were never really accepted into the Church, becoming outcasts of Catholic society, (but allowed to stay and pay their taxes!)
However, the Reformists did not necessarily believe in baptising babies. They felt that being baptised was an adult decision after a clear understanding of the Christian faith. This not only assisted the Reformists appeal as a religion, it also helped in their resistance movement against the Catholics- given that the Reformers allowed for adult repentance which forgave all sins. One can see why this particular scene, of an adult educated in Christianity who chooses to be baptised, would be a passage that the Reformers would want to emphasize. A clear rejection of the Catholic church’s decree, written right there in the New Testament
This may seem like a splitting of hairs in our current society, but we have to remind ourselves that the Dutch Reformists were fighting an eighty years war with the Spanish who had been forcing Catholicism on society with an iron fist. Heresy could get you jailed (or even hung), so sending a signal to guests who could acknowledge or ignore your affiliation with one side or the other seems a pretty smart move at the time.
Of course, it is strange to think of a beautifully rendered scene like this one as a form of protest art, but maybe it was. One has to wonder if painting an New Testament scene clearly depicted in the Bible - a scene inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic church – was an intentional slight to Catholic rule. Was hanging this scene in your home a way to fly your Reformist flag and let your guests know which side you were on? This may not be something we ever know but it does feel like more than a coincidence that this particular subject peaked at a time when the war was in its final push and the Dutch were only years away from independence. So, did the Dutch invent protest art too?
8 June, 2022