Christus aan het Kruis met rondom Johannes de Evangelist, Maria Magdalena, de Annunciatie en Jozef van Nazareth 1883 - 1888

This devotional print of Christ on the Cross was likely made in France, though the artist, P. Halin, is not widely known. Its iconography is traditional, combining the crucifixion with images of John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene, the Annunciation, and Joseph of Nazareth. What makes this print interesting is the way in which the central image is framed. The abundant text, floral motifs, and dragon are visual cues that indicate its function as a household blessing. In nineteenth-century France, the Catholic Church was a powerful institution, but one also beset by challenges from secularizing forces. Prints like this one were a means of reinforcing religious belief within the domestic sphere and it speaks to the fraught relationship between religious and secular authority in nineteenth-century France. Historians of religion would look to archives of religious orders and dioceses to better understand the context in which this image was produced and consumed.