Portret van Joannes van der Meer 1652

Cornelis Visscher made this print of Joannes van der Meer in the Netherlands sometime before his death in 1658. The image presents van der Meer, a priest in the Dutch Catholic church, as a pious figure. We can see visual codes of devotion in his upturned gaze, his clasped hands and the crucifix that is visible through the parted curtain. A skull rests on a book by the crucifix and a coat of arms is displayed above him, all of which suggest the social status of the sitter. The visual rhetoric of this image is fairly conservative, but we should remember that the Netherlands in the 17th century was deeply divided between its Catholic and Protestant citizens. Seen in this light, the portrait stakes a claim for the public role of Catholicism in the Netherlands, at a time when the country was dominated by Protestantism. To understand this image better, scholars would look at the history of religion in the Netherlands, as well as the history of portraiture and printmaking. In this way, we can appreciate the social and institutional contexts of the artwork.