H. Matteüs c. 1596

This engraving of Saint Matthew was produced by Zacharias Dolendo in the Netherlands at the end of the 16th century. The print depicts Matthew as a scholar holding a book, perhaps his Gospel, and pointing as if to emphasize a particular passage. As one of Christ’s apostles, Matthew would have been an important figure in Dutch religious life. But the image also reflects the cultural importance of the printed book. The Dutch Republic was becoming a center of printing and publishing at this time. The mass production of texts transformed not only religious life, as reformers challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, but also the world of learning and scholarship. To fully understand an image like this, historians can consult a variety of resources, from inventories of private libraries to records of the printing industry and theological debates of the period. These help us situate artworks within a broader social and institutional context.