Op weg naar Emmaüs Possibly 1648 - 1677

Harmen ter Borch created this pen and brown ink drawing, "On the Road to Emmaus," sometime in the 17th-century Netherlands. Here, Ter Borch depicts a story from the Gospel of Luke, in which the resurrected Jesus appears to two disciples walking to Emmaus. The Netherlands, during this period, was undergoing immense social and political transformation as it fought for independence and religious freedom. Religious imagery was fraught with ideological tension between traditional Catholic and emerging Protestant views. Note the everyday clothing of the figures, which may reflect the Protestant tendency to bring religious figures down to earth, but the halo suggests an awareness of more traditional iconography. The landscape is sparse and barren, typical for the area, and perhaps acting as a metaphor for the spiritual landscape of the time. To fully understand such an image, art historians explore a wide range of sources, from theological texts to costume histories, to gain insight into the complex interplay of faith, politics, and art in the Dutch Golden Age.