Wederopstanding van Christus 1548

This is Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert’s engraving of the Resurrection of Christ, made in the Netherlands in the late 16th century. It depicts a muscular Christ rising triumphantly above a group of startled Roman soldiers. In this image, Coornhert uses the visual language of the Italian Renaissance— seen especially in the exaggerated musculature of the figures —to convey a specifically Protestant message. The resurrection of Christ was a key point of contention between Protestants and Catholics at this time. Protestants believed in salvation through faith alone, not through good works or the sacraments administered by the Catholic Church. As a result, there was a huge rise in the distribution of images and pamphlets that helped spread reformist ideas. To understand this work more fully, we need to look at the social and religious context in which it was made and distributed. Historians use sources like church records, pamphlets, and other images to better understand the social role of art.