Profeet Jesaja 1675

Cesare Fantetti produced this print of the Prophet Isaiah sometime in the late 17th century. The print portrays Isaiah in a classical style, surrounded by putti and ornate scrollwork. Made in Italy, it reflects the period's fascination with classical antiquity and the Bible, both key pillars of European culture. The institutional context for a print like this is complex. On the one hand, the Catholic Church was a major patron of the arts, encouraging religious imagery, yet the Italian Renaissance was also a time of growing humanism and intellectual ferment, that would ultimately give way to the Enlightenment. Prints such as this one circulated widely, thus helping to disseminate ideas and artistic styles, yet the question we need to ask as social historians is, to what degree did they challenge or reinforce existing social norms? To properly understand the cultural and intellectual world from which this print emerged, we would want to consult a variety of primary sources, including religious treatises, philosophical texts, and art criticism.