Tobias geneest zijn vaders blindheid 1836

Henri Van der Haert made this print, "Tobias Heals His Father's Blindness," sometime in the first half of the 19th century. It illustrates a scene from the Book of Tobit, one of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible. The print's linear style and emphasis on classical drapery link it to the Neoclassical movement, popular in Europe at the time. But it’s worth asking how Van der Haert’s representation of this biblical story might reflect the changing social and religious context of the Netherlands in the 1800s. The rise of Romanticism, with its focus on personal emotion and spirituality, challenged the dominance of the established church. Prints like this one, distributed widely, allowed individuals to engage with religious narratives in a more personal and intimate way, outside the confines of formal religious institutions. To understand the print better, we might investigate the publishing industry of the time and the role of religious imagery in shaping popular piety. Ultimately, art’s meaning always depends on the social conditions in which it is made and received.