Portret van Caspar Sibelius 1637

This is Jonas Suyderhoef’s 1637 engraving of Caspar Sibelius. It depicts a man of the cloth in the Dutch Republic during the height of the Reformation. We see him in the standard garb of a minister, a dark robe and ruff, holding a book, perhaps a bible, and facing the viewer with an open hand. The inscription tells us that he is 48 years of age. Religious imagery was a key cultural battleground in the Netherlands at this time. The Dutch Republic was a Protestant country, and artists like Suyderhoef found a market for their works producing images of key religious figures for a Protestant audience. The institutions of the church and the printing press were therefore key in shaping the cultural output of the time. As historians, it's our role to understand the context in which art is made. In order to fully understand this piece, we might explore archives of printed material from the period, as well as church records, to better understand the cultural and social dynamics of the time.