Portret van Johannes Vrechemius naar rechts 1655 - 1686

Jonas Suyderhoef made this portrait print of Johannes Vrechemius sometime between 1613 and 1686. Vrechemius was a pastor in the Dutch Republic during the time of the Dutch Golden Age. The portrait is framed within an oval border, inscribed with Vrechemius's name and titles: "Pastor," "Johannes Vrechemius," and "Dordrechtanae Ecclesiae," indicating his role as a pastor of the church in Dordrecht. Dordrecht was a politically important city, where the Synod of Dordrecht had taken place a few decades earlier. The Synod was an important event in the history of the Dutch Reformed Church, as it settled a number of theological disputes. The Dutch were proud of their Reformed Church and so, to have one’s portrait made in this time, as a pastor, suggests a desire to be seen as a public figure of some importance. To understand this image better, we can look at historical records and theological texts from that time to get a sense of the issues that mattered to people like Vrechemius.