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The word of Calvin in the art of Jan VictorsDebra Miller aa St Philadelphia, PA, 19146, USA1633 RodmanPublished online: 01 Sep 2008.

To cite this article: Debra Miller (1992) The word of Calvin in the art of Jan Victors , Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of ArtHistory, 61:3, 99-105, DOI: 10.1080/00233609208604313

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The Word of Calvin in the Art of JanVictors*

DEBRA MILLER

One of the most extensive categories in Jan Vic-tors' production is the representation of reli-gious subjects, which comprises fully 39% ofthe artist's identified works, or approximately60 known paintings.1 But, uniquely, Victorsnever painted a New Testament narrative, aChristian saint, or a depiction of Christ; hisreligious works are limited to scenes from theOld Testament and its Apocrypha. The mainsource for Victors' scriptural subjects is theBook of Genesis; episodic depictions from thelife of Abraham and of his three great descend-ants (Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph) constitute vir-tually half of the artist's religious works. Theothers find their origins in the Biblical Books ofExodus, Numbers, Judges, Ruth, Samuel,Kings, and Esther, and the Apocryphal Book ofTobit. A great many deal with themes of exile,reconciliation, and benediction, or the handingdown of God's covenant from generation togeneration in order to perpetuate the nation ofAbraham (e.g., Fig. 1).

Such a preponderance of Judeo-Christiansubject matter has led to speculation about thesources of Victors' patronage. It has been sug-gested that Victors served the wealthy Sephardiccommunity in Amsterdam, with which Rem-brandt had strong connections in the late 1630s- the period when Victors was presumablytraining in Rembrandt's studio and a time thatalso saw the deterioration of Sephardic tenetsagainst pictorial art.2

*Dedicated to the memory of Oliver Banks (1941-91).

Unfortunately, little documentary evidencesupports this hypothesis. Only a handful of Vic-tors' paintings are cited in seventeenth-centuryinventories, and only one in the possession of aJew. This sole reference occurs not in the cata-logue of an extensive art collection, but in thebankruptcy inventory of the meagre householdeffects of the Sephardic Isacq de Monte (alias delSotto).3 No real patterns of patronage can becharted from such scanty data. We should alsonote that the collections of the wealthiest Jewishamateurs of the period were not restricted toJudaic subjects, but contained Christian (andpagan) themes as well.4 In general, it seems thatthe art collection represents an indication of aes-thetic taste and financial status, not religiousaffiliation. If a case for Jewish patronage forVictors were to be sought, we might be betteradvised to look to the less wealthy sector. ThoseJews who could afford but a few paintings tohang in their homes might be more inclined tochoose themes with a profound personal andreligious significance than would the more eru-dite and moneyed collectors. They would also,most probably, remain undocumented.

A second, more plausible explanation may beoffered for Victors' resolute devotion to OldTestament themes. In their turn away from theexcesses of Catholicism, Dutch Protestants re-turned to the word of the Bible and, in so doing,allied themselves with the Jews of the Old Dis-pensation, becoming, in effect, the new descend-ants of Abraham. Calvin himself stressed thekinship between contemporary Christians andBiblical Jews5 - a concept of lineage he derivedfrom Galatians 3: 29:

Konsthistorisk Tidskrift LXI Häfte 3, 1992

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100 Debra Miller

Fig. 1. Jan Victors, Dismissal of Hagar, 1642, oil oncanvas, 109 X 141 cm. New York, Richard L. Feigen &Co.

And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham'sseed, and heirs according to the promise.

As a result, the narratives of the Old Testamentenjoyed a popular revival and served as newlyrediscovered source material for pictorial repre-sentation in the Protestant Netherlands, espe-cially apparent in the art of Rembrandt and hiscircle.

But neither Rembrandt, the so-called Pre-Rembrandtists, nor any Rembrandt studentother than Jan Victors completely avoided rep-resentations of Christ and religious themes ofthe Christian era. To dismiss Victors as a mereparticipant in the contemporary vogue for theOld Testament is to ignore his singular thematicselectivity. It is perhaps more significant toquestion Victors' elimination of subjects, ratherthan his selection. A personal motivation seemslikely, possible one based upon his own reli-gious convictions.

As a practicing Calvinist (Victors, his siblings,his wife, and their children were all baptized andburied in the Reformed Church) the artistwould have been subject, by conscience, to thewritings of his religion's founder. In his In-stitutes of the Christian Religion, first publishedin Basel in 1536, Calvin's stand against the "gra-ven images" of the Second Commandment wasset forth:

it is manifest, that whatever statues are set upor pictures painted to represent God, are ut-terly displeasing to him, as a kind of insults[sic] to his majesty... It is mere infatuation toattempt to defend images of God and thesaints.6

Of course, after the fury of the Iconoclasm of1566 had died down, a plethora of Christiansubjects was reintroduced to the Netherlands bysuch Post-Reformation artists as the late Man-nerists, the Utrecht Caravaggisti, and the Pre-Rembrandtists - many of whom had traveled tothe Catholic strongholds of Italy and Flandersfor artistic inspiration, and several of whomwere themselves Catholic. But for an orthodox,evangelical Calvinist — that is, a strict adherentto the word of Calvin — the just quoted passagefrom his writings might eliminate much of theNew Testament, Christ, and hagiography froman artist's acceptable repertoire. Similarly in theperforming arts, dramatizations of Old Testa-ment narratives were common during Victors'era. They were, in fact, among the only religiousperformances permitted in Calvinist Holland af-ter 1619, since the Synod of Dordrecht had de-creed that no episodes from the life of Christcould be shown on stage.7 Playwrights werethus limited in their choice of Biblical themes toa few sections of the New Testament (such as theParables) or to the entire Old Testament. Signif-icantly, Calvin exempted representations of thecherubim from his group of forbidden sacredimages, for they "belonged to the old tutelage ofthe law".8 In this way, Calvin draws a distinc-tion between the historical characters of the OldTestament and the holy personages of the New.The former represent preliminary, didacticforms to guide the chosen; the latter taboo in-ducements to idolatry.

Victors had dealings with some of the moststaunch and devoted Calvinists of his era, in theDiaconie Weeshuis (the orphanage of the Re-formed Protestant Relief Board) - for whom heexecuted a pair of paintings - and the ReverendPetrus Wittewrongel, who baptized Victors'

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The Word of Calvin in the Art of Jan Victors 101

Fig. 2. Jan Victors, Feeding of the Orphan Girls, c. 1658-62, oil on canvas, 146x221 cm. Amsterdam, Diakonie derHervormde Gemeente, on loan to the Amsterdams Historisch Museum.

daughter Styntje in 1645.' Wittewrongel, anoted writer on practical theology, served as aminister of the Reformed Church in Victors'native Amsterdam from 1638 until his death in1662. His zealous brand of Calvinist rigiditywas most infamously evinced in his fight againstJoost van den Vondel's drama Lucifer of 1654,which the minister deemed a sacrilege. If Victorsshared in Wittewrongeľs sincere and personalcommitment to the fundamental proscriptionsof Calvinism, it would account for his peculiarlyrestrictive subject matter.

The word of Calvin is indeed manifest in Vic-tors' pendants for the Diaconie Weeshuis (Figs.2 and 3). Construction of the Calvinist orphan-age was begun in 1656 and the building wasconsecrated in the following year by the Rever-end Wittewrongel. Shortly thereafter, Victorsapparently received his commission from thedeaconesses of the girls' house for two paintingsto hang in the main reception area - the only

paintings mentioned in early descriptions of theinstitution, thereby suggesting an intimate asso-ciation between Victors and the Calvinists.

The paintings, executed between 1658 and1662, and now on loan to the Amsterdams His-torisch Museum, show the everyday routine ofThe Feeding and The Clothing of the OrphanGirls by the patronesses, in the unadorned inte-rior of the orphanage. The seemingly unposed,genre-like intimacy of the scenes and the simpleblack, white, grey, and red costumes of thewomen differ markedly from the more formalpostures and attire seen in Victors' other portraitcommissions. Were it not for the names of thesitters, inscribed in the lower right-hand cornerof each of the pendants, we might not recognizethem as portraits at all.10

Traditionally, Dutch charitable institutionslike the Diaconie Weeshuis commissioned twocategories of paintings: portraits of their re-gents; and scenes of the Acts of Christian Char-

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102 Debra Miller

Fig. 3. Jan Victors, Clothing of the Orphan Girls, c. 1658-62, oil on canvas, 146X221 cm. Amsterdam, Diakonie derHervormde Gemeente, on loan to the Amsterdams Historisch Museum.

ity (or Works of Mercy), ultimately derivedfrom Christ's teachings on the Mount of Olives,and frequently numbering Christ among thepoor.11 Eventually the two types merged, whenthe likenesses of actual ecclesiastics and laymenwere integrated into the latter scenes (Fig. 4).Victors takes the development one step further,by creating genre-like, occupational group por-traits with moralizing Calvinistic overtones.

His paintings, grounded in the tradition of theWorks of Mercy, adhere quite closely to theNew Testament text (Matthew 25: 35-36):

For I was hungered, and ye gave me meat: Iwas thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was astranger, and ye took me in: Naked and yeclothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: Iwas in prison, and ye came unto me.

The deaconesses, actively involved in adminis-tering charity to the orphan girls, serve as ex-

emplary models of the Christian vita activa bydistributing food, drink, and clothing within theshelter of the orphanage, while a doctor calls onan ailing patient in an adjoining backroom ofThe Clothing. Only the visitation of prisoners,specified in the Bible, is inappropriate to a real-istic depiction of an orphanage and is thereforeomitted. It is also noteworthy that Victors doesnot incorporate the burying of the dead into hispendants. One of the seven medieval Acts ofCharity (developed in the twelfth century),1,!2 itwas neither mentioned by Christ in his sermonnor personally performed by the deaconesses ofthe orphanage. Victors' omission thus conflatesscriptural accuracy with contemporary realism.

The artist, however, does add two unique in-gredients to his abbreviated Works of Mercy. Afigure in the background of The Feeding readsfrom a book at a lectern. We may assume thatthe book is a Bible — the source of instructionfor the children and of all the charitable works

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Fig. 4. Master van Alkmaar, Feeding the Hungry. 1504,oil on panel, 101x54 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.

depicted in the paintings. Furthermore, severalof the orphan girls look out at us from TheFeeding (in a favorite Dutch Baroque motif ofinterruption), as if we, the viewers, were "com-ing unto them", visiting these unfortunate pris-oners of fate. According to the Calvinist doc-trine of predestination, all such human condi-tions were preordained by God. Citing theScriptures on this important point, Calvinquotes Christ's thoughts on the man who wasborn blind (but which might be applied equallywell to the orphans):

The Word of Calvin in the Art of Jan Victors 103

Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents:but that the works of God should be mademanifest in him (John 9: 3).u

Might Victors have thus intended to emphasizethe didactic mode of his .paintings and encourageus all to imitate the deaconesses - an office es-tablished in the Netherlands by the Calvinists ofthe late sixteenth century — as chosen practitio-ners of the Acts of Christian Charity?

Calvin's original expectations of such lay-women were unequivocal:

For deaconesses were appointed... to performa public ministry of the Church toward thepoor, and to labour with all zeal, assiduity,and diligence, in offices of charity.14

In the Reformed philosophy, such desirable hu-man actions were to be seen neither as the re-sults of free will nor the grounds for redemp-tion, but represented, rather, the fruits andproof of preordained faith and salvation. In thisway, Victors' portraits are not merely vain com-memorations of the individual sitters, but trib-utes to God as well, since their deeds derivefrom Divine election and benefit the institution

Fig. 5. Jacob Cats, "Let Your Light So Shine BeforeMen", engraving, in Al de Wercken van I. Cats, 1665 ed.(Amsterdam: J. J. Schipper).

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104 Debra Miller

Fig. 6. Jan Victors, Portrait of a Family in OrientalDress, 1670, oil on canvas, 99x133.5 cm. Present where-abouts unknown.

of the Reformed Church. There is, indeed, atotal lack of vanity in the portrayal of thewomen, who are so modestly attired that onemight almost mistake them for servants. Theyare, in effect, servants of the will of God, mani-fested in the Calvinist Church and its ideal ofcharity - in keeping with the etymology of theword "deacon", which derives from the Greek"diakonos" or "servant". Thus, the Calvinistmoral of the paintings, in the words of Christ'sSermon on the Mount, seems to be:

Let your light so shine before men that theymay see your good works and glorify [notyou but] your Father which is in heaven (Mat-thew 5: 16).

The same sentiment appears in a popular con-temporary emblem by the poet Jacobs Cats,showing a beacon with the motto "Luceat luxvestra coram hominibus"15 (fig. 5) - a motif thatRembrandt borrowed for his group portrait ofthe exemplary Syndics of the Cloth DrapersGuild of 1661-62 (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum),by incorporating a painting of a lighthouse inthe background dado. Victors, with only theseoblique references to the New Testament, suc-cessfully represents the teachings of Christ in hisnon-narrative group portraits, which contain nohistorical or religious personages, and thereby

honor the Second Commandment against gra-ven images.

Finally, it is interesting to note that the onlynude Victors is known to have painted appearsin The Clothing of the Orphan Girls, in theform of a child being dressed by one of thedeaconesses. Her strongly lighted, full-lengthfigure is seen in a modest 3/4-view from behind,so as not to be shown in full frontal or rearnudity. Victors defines the girl's skin, muscula-ture, and bone structure with fluidity and nat-uralism; her curvilinear silhouette is fluent andher anatomy well joined. Clearly, it was not alack of ability that prohibited Victors from evertreating the nude human form again, or fromever painting an adult nude. Once again, Vic-tors' exclusion is quite unusual for a figure pain-ter (which he was — treating portraits, genresubjects, and historical themes throughout hiscareer) and rather unexpected in the Rembrandtschool (the master renowned for his extremelynaturalistic and sensitive nudes); once again, wemust speculate that Victors' strong religious andmoral convictions forbade him to do so.

In 1670, Jan Victors signed his last datedwork, the so-called Portrait of a Family in Ori-ental Dress (fig. 6). Three years later, he was nolonger working full-time as a painter, but hadsigned on as a ziekentrooster (a "comforter ofthe sick") in the service of the maritime EastIndia Company.16 Aboard ship, the sea-faringziekentrooster's duties combined those of a sub-stitute chaplain and nurse; they read prescribeddaily prayers and Sunday sermons, sang psalmsand hymns, and attended to the sick and dying.On land, they visited hospitals, served as pri-mary school teachers, and taught catechism,;aslay assistants to full-fledged preachers. Clearly,Victors was well-prepared for this change incareers; his paintings attest to his profoundknowledge of the Bible and his strict devotion tothe Calvinist doctrine of his era.

Notes1. For the most complete study of Victors, with a full catalogue

raisonné of his paintings, see Debra Miller, "Jan Victors(1619-76)" (Ph. D. diss., University of Delaware, Newark,1985).

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2. Eric Zafran, "Jan Victors and the Bible", Israel MuseumNews 12 (1977): 92.

3. Among the items listed in the document of 16 November1677 is a painting of Jacob and Esau by Victors; see DebraMiller, "Jan Victors: An Old Testament Subject in the Indi-anapolis Museum of Art", Perceptions 2 (1982): 28-29, n. 24.

4. E.g., the well-known collection of Diego Duarte (sale 23August 1714) contained depictions of New Testament sub-jects and saints, including works by a variety of Italian,Spanish, and Flemish artists, all of the Catholic faith. See G.Dogaer, "De Inventaris der Schilderijen van Diego Duarte",Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten,Antwerp (1971): 195-221; Edgar R. Samuel, "The Disposalof Diego Duarte's Stock of Paintings 1692-1697", Jaarboekvan het Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp(1976): 305-24; and F. Muller, "Catalogus der Schilderijenvan Diego Duarte, te Amsterdam in 1682, met Prizen vanAankoop en Taxatie", De Oude Tijd 2 (1870): 397-402.

5. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, bk. II,chap. X, sec. 11; and bk. IV, chap. XVI, secs. 11ff. Allreferences and quotations from Calvin cited herein are basedupon the translation by Henry Beveridge, 2 vols., rev. ed.(Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845-46; GrandRapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957).

6. Calvin, bk. I, chap. XI, secs. 2-3.7. Noted by Sturla J. Gudlaugsson, De Komedianten bij Jan

Steen en zijn Tijdgenooten (The Hague: A. A. M. Stols,1945), 6. For the proceedings at Dordrecht, see Acta SynodiNationalis (Leyden: Isaac Elzevier, 1620).

8. Calvin, bk. I, chap. XI, sec. 2. Here it must be noted thatVictors, apparently following Calvin, does not hesitate todepict the order of cherubim within the context of an OldTestament Apocryphal narrative, as evinced by his two ver-sions of The Angel Departing from the Family of Tobias, of1649 (Fig. 7) and 1651 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek) - bothbased on Rembrandts' rendition of 1637 (Paris, Louvre).

The Word of Calvin in the Art of Jan Victors 105

9. On the orphanage, see G. Friedhoff, "Het Diaconie-Wees-huis der Nederlands Hervormde Gemeente", MaandbladAmstelodamum 21 (1934): 85-87; Jan Wagenaar, Amster-dam in zyne Opkomst, reprint (Amsterdam: I. Tirion, 1760-1802; Amsterdam: Buyten & Schipperheijn, 1971-72), II:322; and Marijke Carasso-Kok, Amsterdams Historisch: eenstads geschiedenis aan de hand van de collectie van hetAmsterdams Historisch Museum (Bussum: Fibula-van Dis-hoeck, 1975), 116. The original documents of the Neder-lands Hervormde Diaconie for the years 1650-79 are nolonger extant. On Wittewrongel, see A. J. van der Aa, Bio-graf isch Woordenboek der Nederlanden (Haarlem: J. J. vanBrederode, 1852-78), XX: 399.

10. E. g., Eckhard Schaar, in his catalogue entry on Victors'Clothing of the Orphan Girls, in Luther und die Folgen fürder Kunst, ed. Werner Hoffmann, exhib. Hamburger Kunst-halle, 11 Nov. 1983-8 Jan. 1984 (Munich: Prestel-Verlag,1983), 368, cat. 237, doubts that the deaconesses whosenames are inscribed on the paintings are indeed those figuresdepicted by Victors.

11. See the seminal study by Alois Riegl, Das HolländischeGruppenporträt, 2nd ed., ed. Karl M. Swoboda, 2 vols.(Vienna: Österreichische Staatsdr., 1931); and Sheila D.Muller, Charity in the Dutch Republic: Pictures of Rich andPoor for Charitable Institutions (Ann Arbor: UMI ResearchPress, 1985).

12. Louis Réau, Iconographie de l'art chrétien (Paris: Pressesuniversitaires de France, 1957), II: 748.

13. Calvin, bk. I, chap. XVII, sec. 1; and on Divine Providence,especially bk. II, passim. For a modern exegesis, see LoraineBoettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, 19th ed.(1932; Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed PublishingCo., 1974), 36.

14. Calvin, bk. IV, chap. XIII, sec. 19.15. Jacob Cats, Alle de Wercken, so ouden als nieuwen (Am-

sterdam: J. J. Schipper, 1658), 26-27.16. On the role and social position of the ziekentrooster, see

Charles R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire: 1600-1800(New York: Knopf, 1965), 132-37 and passim; and C. A. L.van Troostenburg de Bruyn, De Hervormde Kerk in Neder-landsch Oost-Indië onder de Oost-Indische Compagnie1602-1795 (Arnhem: H. A. Tjeenk Willink, 1884), 342ff.

Debra Miller1633 Rodman StPhiladelphia, PA 19146USA

fzg. 7. Jan Victors, The Angel Departing from the Familyof Tobias, 1649, oil on canvas, 103.5x148.4 cm. Malibu,The J. Paul Getty Museum.

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