Maria met Kind en Elisabeth met de kleine Johannes 1609

Jacob Matham created this engraving, Maria with Child and Elisabeth with the young John, in the Netherlands around the turn of the seventeenth century. It depicts the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, each with her infant son, Jesus and John the Baptist. The image operates on the social and cultural logic of Counter-Reformation Europe, where visual and textual traditions were mobilized in defense of Catholic doctrine. The intimate, domestic setting of the scene, combined with the tender interaction between the figures, reinforces the importance of family, a key theme within the Church’s response to the rise of Protestantism. Notice, too, the inscription, which underscores the communal joy shared by the holy families. Historical research into the religious and political history of the period helps us to understand how images like this operated as powerful tools in the battle for hearts and minds during the Reformation.