Charity in the audience of John the Baptist

Abstract

This article draws attention to the frequent presence of women with children among the audience of John the Baptist's sermon as it is depicted in sixteenth- and seventeenth century prints and paintings. Rather than as genre-like additions, it is argued that they were included as allegories of Charity. According to the gospel of Luke, John the Baptist advised those who had two coats to give away one, and people who had an abundance of food to share it with others. In other words, he exhorted people to be charitable. A literal visualization of one of the acts of charity in the Baptist's sermon is seen on a print published by Nicholas de Mathonniere, in which a man gives away a coat to another person in the audience (note 6). The allegorical approach was much more common though. Examples come from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In a woodcut by Cranach, three women in the audience are suckling babies (fig. 2); in a painting by Bacchiacca, a woman with three young children frollicking on her lap is positioned prominently in the foreground (note 4); similar groups are visible in Bloemaert's version of the subject in the Rijksmuseum (fig. 1), and in Philips Galle's engraving (fig. 3). A special case is Jacob Backer's Family group with John the Baptist preaching, as it includes a portrait of the mater familias with one bare breast (fig. 4). That again points to an allegorical interpretation, because such a display of nudity in a common portrait would have been deemed improper. Since it concerns a Mennonite family - the artist, who was a Mennonite preacher himself, included a self portrait with his finger raised in warning - this picture is also a reminder that the subject of the Sermon of John the Baptist was not a typical Calvinist subject referring to open air sermons ('hagepreken'), as is often assumed (note 16). In a country like the young Republic, the sermon was an important instrument for all denominations and a suitable subject for decoration on any wall.