Beeldenstorm in een kerk, 1566 1786

Reinier Vinkeles made this etching titled ‘Beeldenstorm in een kerk, 1566’ or ‘Iconoclasm in a church, 1566’. It depicts a moment during the Beeldenstorm, or Iconoclastic Fury, that swept through the Netherlands in the summer of 1566. This image speaks to the deep religious and political tensions that characterized the 16th-century Netherlands, then under Spanish rule. The Beeldenstorm was a wave of attacks by Calvinists and other Protestant groups on Catholic churches, where they destroyed religious imagery and other symbols of what they saw as idolatry. It was an expression of popular discontent with the Catholic Church, as well as with the Spanish authorities who supported it. Vinkeles creates meaning through visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations, with the broken statues representing a rejection of religious authority. The historian can use sources from the period to understand the Beeldenstorm as a key moment in the Dutch Revolt, which ultimately led to the independence of the Netherlands.