Buste van een monnik 1831 - 1904

Arnoud Schaepkens made this etching of a monk, sometime in the 19th century. The image is a study in contrasts, between the spare rendering of the monk’s face and the scribbled thicket of lines suggesting his beard and habit. Schaepkens, born in Maastricht, Netherlands, spent much of his career as a drawing instructor. We might then understand this print as an exercise in technique, of the kind he might have set for his students. If so, the choice of subject would have been deliberate. The church had been a major patron of the arts, yet by the 19th century its cultural authority was in decline, challenged by new philosophies and institutions. To understand an image like this, we might consult archives of art schools. We might investigate the changing social status of the church in the Netherlands at this time. The meaning of a work of art is always contingent on its context.