Jesaja 1613

Cornelis Galle I made this engraving of Jesaja, or Isaiah, a prophet from the Hebrew Bible. It was produced in the Netherlands sometime in the late 16th or early 17th century. Engravings like this one existed in a society deeply shaped by religion, and Galle's work reflects that context. Note the Latin inscriptions surrounding Isaiah's head. These religious texts were culturally powerful at the time, particularly in the context of the Catholic Church and the rise of Protestantism. Galle would have been working during a time of iconoclasm in the Netherlands and broader debates about the role of religious imagery. The print is currently held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, an institution that plays a significant role in shaping our understanding of Dutch art and history. To understand Galle’s work more fully, we could research the religious and political context of the Dutch Golden Age and explore the history of printmaking as a medium for disseminating religious ideas.