Landschap met Elia en de engel 1614 - 1648

Andries Stock created this landscape with Elijah and the angel as an engraving sometime around 1600 in the Netherlands. Religious images circulated widely as part of the early modern print market, with complex networks of artists, publishers and distributors. The print depicts a scene from the Old Testament, where the prophet Elijah is fed by an angel in the wilderness. We can observe a number of visual codes, such as landscape, that evoke the spiritual qualities of the narrative. The Dutch Republic was a Protestant nation, so biblical themes were not typically commissioned by religious institutions. Rather, they were produced for a commercial market. Prints such as this one encouraged private devotion. We might look at the archives of Dutch printmakers and publishers to better understand this context. Art is always made in particular social and institutional conditions, and the work of the historian is to reconstruct them.