Verwoesting van de heidense beelden 1789

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki made this print, titled 'Destruction of the Heathen Images', sometime in the 18th century. It depicts a scene of iconoclasm, the destruction of religious icons or other images, a recurring feature of European history. The image creates meaning through visual codes that would have been very familiar to Chodowiecki's contemporaries. The broken statues, the men climbing ladders to destroy them, and the general chaos of the scene all point to a moment of radical change. The scene is not set in any particular time or place, suggesting that the artist sees iconoclasm as a recurring phenomenon. To understand this print better, we can look to historical accounts of iconoclasm during the Reformation and the French Revolution. We can also consider the role of the art market in shaping the production and reception of images. By studying these contexts, we can better understand the complex social and political forces that shaped Chodowiecki's work. This helps us to understand the meaning of art as something that is contingent on social and institutional context.