Mayhem, Morals and Merriment: The Case for and Against Christmas in 17th-Century Northern European Painting   

Christmas: from keeping Christ in it, to carols filling the air at the mall before Thanksgiving, to preserving holiday traditions that link us back to our past – it can all seem a bit chaotic. But what if you were to look at another era when issues like commercialization, piety, and contested traditions were depicted in paintings? This lecture focuses on the art of 17th-century Flanders and Holland, particularly the contrast of Jacob Jordaens, a Flemish Protestant student and painter of revels and feasts, versus Jan Steen, a Dutch Catholic painter of comedies, both of whom hid in plain sight secret Christmas messages that reflected their beliefs and the fragile tolerance they both enjoyed in a time of great religious strife.