Allegorie op vertrouwen 1608

Jacob van der Heyden made this engraving, "Allegory of Trust," sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century. The print shows a wolf, a Jew, and a Catholic priest in a landscape, representing untrustworthy figures. The inscription warns against trusting them. Made in the Netherlands during the religious and political conflicts of the Reformation, the image functions as propaganda. Each figure symbolizes groups mistrusted by the dominant Calvinist culture. The wolf, often a symbol of greed and danger, could represent the predatory nature of those considered enemies of the state. Anti-Semitic tropes, common in early modern Europe, associate Jews with dishonesty. The Catholic priest critiques the Catholic Church, which was rejected by Dutch Protestants. The print’s imagery is a window into the social anxieties of its time. Understanding its context requires research into the history of religious conflict, anti-Semitism, and political propaganda in the early modern Netherlands. The artwork's meaning is thus contingent on its volatile social and institutional context.