Fishing for Souls

Fishing for Souls

SK-A-447

• inscription, on the tiller of the boat on the right: ‘PAP. IVDICIVM’
• inscription, on the clothes of the old woman on the right bank: ‘VERVS CATOLICA’
• inscription, on banderoles in the net of the leading boat: ‘FIDES / SPES / CHARITAS’
• inscription, on the book on the left in the leading boat: ‘MAT. / 4.19 / MAR. / 1.17 / LVC. / 5.10 / JOA’
• inscription, on the tiller of the leading boat: ‘IEHOVAE IVDICIVM’
• inscription, on the tree on the left bank: ‘psalm / I’
• inscription, on the orange-tree on the left bank: ‘TANDEM. FIT. SVRCVLVS. ARBOR’
• inscription, on the book by the tiller of the leading boat: ‘EVAN / GELIO / PISCA / TORES / OPTIO / INCOMPA / RABILIS / ANNO / 1614’
• inscription, on the Ten Commandments panel in the net of the leading boat: ‘EXO / DIV / S / 20.2 / DEV / TER / ENO / 5.6’

In 1614 politics and religion are inextricably bound up with one another, as is very clear to see in this painting. At the left are Protestant ministers and leaders of the Republic (including Maurice), and at the right the archdukes who govern the South, with countless Catholic clergymen. The North, according to the painter, has a promising future: the sun shines there, the trees are full of leaves. Whosoever wants to be saved is better off swimming to a Protestant boat.

I. Reesing, Notre Dame de Foy: the reuse and dissemination of a late medieval figurine of the Virgin in the Low Countries, Simiolus Volume 33, nr. 3 (2007/2008), p. 147, afb. 3

painter: Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne

1614

olieverf op paneel

• height 121.1 cm x width 211 cm
• height 98.5 cm x width 187.8 cm
• height 97 cm x width 186.7 cm

nationalization 1795 1798-09

Public domain

...; collection Joan Fox and Johanna Tiers, Amsterdam, 22 March 1689 (`De geestelijk visscherije Vander Ven´);{Bredius II, 1916, p. 392.}...; sale, Marinus de Jeude, The Hague, 18 April 1735, no. 91, as Jan Bruegel the Elder (`Een kapitael Stuk, zeer uytvoerig en vol werk, verbeeldende een Rivier vol Schuytjes, waar in veel Geleerde Mannen Visschen, terwyl andere op de Wal staen, zynde aen de eene zyde de Gereformeerde, waer onder zig de Famielje van den Prins van Orange en de opwassende Spruyt bevind, Visschende met de Wet en het Evangelium, en aen de andere zyde Roomschgesinde Visschende met hunnen Ceremonien en Kerkgebruyken, zeer talryk van Volk, en alles geschilderd door den Fluweelen Breugel´), fl. 760,{Hoet I, 1752, p. 436.} possibly to Prince Willem IV;{See Drossaers/Lunsingh Scheurleer II, 1974, p. 639, no. 11.}...; estate inventory Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn, 1757-63 (`Een fraay stuk van alderhande religie in de manier van Bruegel, hoog 3v 5d, breet 6v 6d [98 x 185 cm]´);{Drossaers/Lunsingh Scheurleer II, 1974, p. 639, no. 11.}...; first recorded in the museum in January 1800{Van Thiel 1981a, p. 190, no. 42.}

• I. Reesing, Notre Dame de Foy: the reuse and dissemination of a late medieval figurine of the Virgin in the Low Countries, Simiolus Volume 33, nr. 3 (2007/2008), p. 147, afb. 3
• Inzoomer object op zaal, 2013 (Nederlands/English).
• F. Grijzenhout, 'Tempel voor Nederland : De Nationale Konst-Gallerij in 's-Gravenhage', Nederlands Kunsthistorische Jaarboek 35 (1984), p. 17, afb. 14.

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200108516