The Judgement of Solomon ; Falsa Ecclesia. Vera Ecclesia (Allegory of the true and the false church)
Haarlem: Hendrick Hondius, 1604. Engraving on cream laid paper with a partial Basel Crosier watermark in the left sheet, 9 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches (247 x 184 mm), margins. In excellent condition with minor scattered, unobtrusive spots of discoloration. A superb impression with all of the fine lines printing clearly.
By 1604, the Northern Netherlands had achieved de facto independence, but the trauma of Spanish occupation and religious tyranny remained an acute wound that Goltzius masterfully addresses in this composition. Rather than a straightforward biblical narrative, the image operates as a scathing political and religious allegory targeting the Spanish Inquisition and the persecution of Protestants during the Eighty Years' War. King Solomon, seated under an exotic canopy on the left, represents the heavy seat of temporal judgment presiding over an anxious, high-stakes geopolitical courtroom. To his right, the two mothers personify the clashing ideologies of the era: the True Mother, kneeling in desperate supplication to spare the infant, represents the Reformed Faith and the protective spirit of the Dutch homeland, willing to endure immense sacrifice to prevent total destruction. Conversely, the False Mother symbolizes the cold tyranny of Spain and the Counter-Reformation forces, demanding the literal, violent division of the child, reflecting a regime that would rather see the provinces ruined and severed by war than cede ideological control. Combined with the chilling inscription from John 16:2 warning of those who kill in the name of God, Goltzius transforms an ancient lesson in wisdom into a sharp, contemporary critique of religious fanaticism.
Item number: 2475
Price: $2,200.00
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