Hosea met zijn vrouw en drie kinderen 1645 - 1740

This engraving, Hosea with his wife and three children, was made by Christoffel van Sichem II. Sichem was part of a large and successful family of woodcutters and publishers who operated out of Basel and Amsterdam, and this print, now in the Rijksmuseum, testifies to the social role of biblical imagery in the Dutch Republic. The image depicts the prophet Hosea, from the Hebrew bible, with his family. In the background, we can see what appears to be a ruined classical archway, which may carry a symbolic message about the fallibility of earthly empires. The print includes a rhyming verse in Dutch. This tells us that Hosea was told by God to marry a prostitute and have children with her, in order to teach the people of Judah a lesson. The Dutch Republic was a Protestant nation that put great emphasis on personal morality and the family unit. We might want to examine the ways in which the image reinforces or challenges these social norms. Researching the publication history of this print might further our understanding of its function and reception at the time.