Christus en de cijnspenning 1622

Lucas Vorsterman created this print of ‘Christus en de cijnspenning’ in the Netherlands, sometime in the 17th century. The image depicts a scene from the New Testament in which Jesus is asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. He famously replies that one should ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s’. The image is a product of the Counter-Reformation, when the Catholic Church was keen to reassert its authority, in the face of the Protestant Reformation. As such, it can be seen as a defense of the established order, and of the Church’s role in it. The print would have been commissioned by a wealthy patron, likely a member of the clergy, as the inscription along the bottom indicates. To understand this print fully, we need to investigate the religious history of the Netherlands in the 17th century, through institutional archives and historical documents. This will help us to understand the social and political context in which it was made.