Elisa door kinderen bespot 1616 - 1636

Nicolaes Ryckmans created this print, ‘Elisa door kinderen bespot,’ in the Netherlands, sometime in the early 17th century. It depicts a scene from the Old Testament in which the prophet Elisha is mocked by children because of his baldness. He curses them, and two bears emerge from the woods to kill them. But beyond this, we might ask what function such a striking image would serve in the Netherlands, a country undergoing religious reformation at this time. The Latin captions around the perimeter suggest an educated audience who would have been familiar with biblical stories. Did the image serve as a warning against the mockery of prophets? Or was it more about the role of collective social life? These are the kind of questions that social and cultural historians grapple with when looking at images of the past. We are interested in how institutions, beliefs, and social structures influence artistic creation and reception. We can use archives, libraries, and digital resources to better understand this complex relationship.