Toren van Babel en Abraham geeft een tiende deel aan Melchisedek 1791

Simon Fokke made this print of the Tower of Babel and Abraham giving tithes to Melchizedek sometime in the 18th century. As an artist, Fokke existed in a nexus of institutions, working as an engraver for publishers, and as a member of artists’ societies, like the Amsterdam Stadstekenacademie. In the Dutch Republic of the 1700s, religious subjects were newly fraught with political meaning. On the one hand, the Dutch Reformed Church was the official religion, supported by the state. On the other hand, the Dutch Republic was known for its tradition of toleration, with other religions, like Catholicism and Judaism, tolerated as long as they didn’t challenge the authority of the state. Prints like this one, therefore, had a public role to play, reminding citizens of the value of religious observance, and picturing a biblical past in which the relationship between church and state was already in place. If we want to understand more, we might want to turn to the historical archives of the church or the state.