To Proclaim, to Instruct and to Discipline: the Visuality of Texts in Calvinist Churches in the Dutch Republic

Texts inscribed on decoratively framed panels or painted within ornate cartouches on church walls became a common feature of Dutch church interiors after the Reformation. After the defacement and removal of much of the liturgical furnishings and art of the late medieval Catholic church interiors, initially during the ‘Beeldenstorm’ of 1566 and more systematically following the takeover of churches by the Calvinists in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, text decoration became a common means in the redecoration and refurbishment of church interiors. While a significant number of text panels and text paintings have been preserved in Dutch churches, their scholarly treatment was thus far fragmentary. This study set out to systematically inventory and analyze extant text panels and text paintings in Dutch Reformed churches dating from ca. 1575-1800. It examines the nature and function of text decoration in the context of the adaptation of formerly Catholic churches for Reformed use in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Firstly, this thesis describes the nature of text panels and text paintings as conveyers of a textual message, and as ornate objects or images of texts; two features that may seem contradictory in the context of the Dutch Reformed church interior from which images were banned to make way for the preaching of the Word. By highlighting the ‘visuality’ of texts displayed in churches, this study amends the more traditional idea of the Dutch Reformed church interior as a space where hearing the Word completely replaced seeing the image. Secondly, this study explains the function of text decoration in the Reformed appropriation and adaptation of church interiors, which were until then outfitted for late medieval Catholic worship, to meet the requirements of Reformed worship and doctrine. Texts painted on walls and panels provided instructions for the Reformed liturgical use of church space, especially for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and served as visual and textual markers of the Reformed identity of the church space. While the historiography of the Reformation is dominated by a narrative of major change, the consideration of forms of continuity is a common thread throughout this study; it highlights the mani-