Narratives of Iconoclasm. The Reception of Reformation Image Destruction in the Arts of the Southern and Northern Netherlands between 1566 and 1830
Final Report Abstract
This study of pictorial representations of iconoclasm in the northern and southern Low Countries is based on the observation that in those areas, the iconoclastic fury of 1566 became the subject of more than fifty images produced over a period of about 250 years. The existence of these pictures raises questions about the reasons for the long-lasting reception and about the narratives, both variable and constant, contained in images of iconoclasm. The story of Netherlandish iconoclasm became a persistent subject of discussion because, not long after the occurrence, the iconoclasm was written into a broader narrative of revolt, making it one of the events that began with a demand for religious freedom and led to the northern provinces’ fight for independence from the Spanish Habsburgs. As part of the larger revolt, iconoclasm entered the national historiography of the emerging Dutch Republic. In the south, however, after the northern provinces seceded and the Catholic Habsburgs were restored to power, discussion of the iconoclastic uprising was largely suppressed and occurred only sporadically in the medium of images. Analysis of the pictorial representations and their original contexts reveals mechanisms by which historical memory was formed and shows which conditions favored either a dynamic discussion or a stasis in argumentation. The most intense and varied discourse took place in the first sixty years, when the fate of the formerly unified north and south was still uncertain. In the southern provinces, when Catholicism became the only recognized denomination and the topic of rebellion, including iconoclasm, was marginalized by officials, a substitute discourse temporarily emerged: one that addressed sacred spaces only indirectly, focusing instead on the Kunstkammer and its function in relation to Christian imagery. This shift gave rise to an astonishing variety of arguments. In the long run, however, the suppression of the topic of iconoclasm constrained the breadth of argumentation, with the result that the small number of representations that did emerge always repeated the same aspects with varying degrees of vehemence. In the north, by contrast, the omnipresence of portrayals of the iconoclastic outbreaks in Protestant national histories led to a stasis, characterized by a uniformity of narrative. This stasis was disrupted when current events made iconoclasm newly topical and when Catholic voices entered the discourse. Even in the eighteenth century, contemporary political upheavals continued to encourage the emergence of new points of view. In conclusion: A discussion gains in diversity and intensity when current political or social situations remain in a state of uncertainty or when a given situation changes dramatically. Yet when a sociopolitical situation becomes consolidated or when a topic is repressed, the result is narrative stasis. Therefore, the search for a narrative that gives meaning and purpose intensifies in times of uncertainty.
Publications
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Narrative des Ikonoklasmus: Das Bild des Bildersturms und die Modellierung der Erinnerung in den südlichen und nördlichen Niederlanden zwischen 1566 und 1800, Berlin 2025
Esther Meier
