Heilige door engelen gedragen 1836

Heinrich Vianden made this print of a saint carried by angels in the 19th century. The image participates in a long tradition of Christian art that served to inspire faith. We can see how the visual codes of earlier religious art are mobilized here. Vianden lived in a Rhineland region that experienced conflict between Catholics and Protestants. We might then ask if the artist's decision to depict such an image took on a particular meaning in that context. Was it meant to affirm Catholic values? The fact that this image was made as a print also tells us something about its potential social life. Prints could be widely circulated and reproduced in books, allowing the artist to disseminate his religious imagery to a broad audience. In order to understand it fully, further research into the history of religion, printmaking, and art institutions in nineteenth-century Germany would be invaluable.