Christus aan het kruis 1648

Christoffel van Sichem II created this small woodcut print, Christus aan het kruis, in the Netherlands sometime between 1600 and 1658. Sichem was part of a generation that came of age in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, a cultural and political earthquake that split Europe and led to decades of war. As a Catholic artist, his images served as devotional aids, and also as affirmations of faith in the face of iconoclasm. The image shows the body of Christ high on the cross, centered amongst a crowd. To the left, a figure holds a hammer aloft, obscuring the sun. To the right, another obscures the moon with his body. These figures, frozen in their acts of destruction, give way to the suffering and grief of the crowd below. By contrasting the celestial with the corporeal, Sichem captures both the cosmic and human scale of the crucifixion. The experience of viewing this print may offer a moment for reflection on the interplay between faith, doubt, and the search for meaning during times of upheaval.