Maria met kind 1741 - 1820

Abraham Delfos created this image of Mary and child using etching and engraving. We can think about Delfos's "Maria met kind" through its cultural context. We can assume it was made in the Netherlands, given that it's where Delfos lived and is now located. The work's religious subject matter reflects the Dutch Republic's then-complicated relationship to religion and religious imagery. Public displays of Catholicism were outlawed, yet private worship continued. We can see the influence of the Catholic tradition of painting holy figures in the tender expressions of the sitters and the realistic depiction of the body. To more deeply understand the image's meaning, one could look to period-specific sources, such as the records of religious institutions, popular devotional texts, and the writings of art critics. A historian might ask: how would the image function in a society in which the institutions of art were heavily influenced by religious and political considerations?