History of the heresy of the iconoclasts

Scene of iconoclasm taking place in front of a church.

The men in the foreground arm themselves with hammers to smash the statues of the saints. The center group ties a rope to a large statue of a saint holding a sword in order to swing it. In the background, liturgical instruments are transported from another church and thrown onto a bonfire.

The Dutch painter and printmaker Jan Luyken (1649-1712) created this image as a frontispiece to a book by Louis Maimbourg (1610-1686) entitled Historie van de Kettery der Beeldstormers (History of the Heresy of the Iconoclasts) published in Amsterdam in 1685 by Timotheus ten Hoorn.

History of the heresy of the iconoclasts

Scene of iconoclasm taking place in front of a church.

Return to collection