Satan onkruid zaaiende 1647

Frans Allen made this print, ‘Satan sowing weeds’, sometime before his death in 1685. It presents a vision of social and spiritual corruption. Allen lived and worked during the Dutch Golden Age. This was a time of great economic prosperity and artistic innovation in the Netherlands. But it also saw the rise of strict Calvinist religious beliefs. Allen’s print reflects these tensions. We see a group of figures collapsed in a heap on the left, while the figure of Satan appears to be walking away on the right after sowing his ‘weeds’. The image invites us to think about the social and political role of the church. Is Allen suggesting that people are vulnerable to corruption in the absence of strict moral guidance? Does it critique the growing wealth and complacency of Dutch society? To fully understand this print, we can turn to sermons, pamphlets, and other documents from the period. These resources help us to understand the cultural and institutional forces that shaped Allen’s work. Art always reflects and comments on the society that produces it.