Madonna with the child 1817

Wilhelm Wach created this sketch of the Madonna and Child with pencil. The Christian theme was one that artists of Wach’s time in the 19th century Prussian Rhineland constantly returned to. The prevalence of this theme reflected both the institutional power of the church and the influence of Romanticism. In this artistic and intellectual environment, artists were eager to look back to previous eras of strong religious imagery, particularly the Middle Ages. But the ways the church and the state used images of the Madonna and Child also reflect a certain institutional anxiety. It was during this time that religion began to lose some of its social authority due to the rise of enlightenment ideas and nationalism. Reproducing the images of the Madonna and Child was not just an artistic tradition, it was a way of re-establishing a certain cultural status quo. To find out more about these cultural forces, examine historical archives, religious publications, and political speeches from the period.