An allegory and illustration of the effects of Spanish policy in the Netherlands, 1565-1575

The present painting is an important work by the artist, as it is his only known allegory of contemporary events and is executed on an unusual large scale. The picture was probably painted in 1575 as the annual clock at the foot of the figure of Time begins at 1565 and ends with the year 1575. It depicts the deteriorating situation in the Netherlands under Philip II in those years, when there was no amelioration of the laws against heresy in 1565, which led to the iconoclasm of 1566, then followed by the Duke of Alva's offensive from 1567 and William of Orange's counter attacks. In the present picture, Personifications of Envy and War herald the `End', represented by the duck in the foreground (a pun, as the Dutch word eend could taken for the meaning eind (end)), of Love (clasped hands) and Charity (children mourning their dead mother) surveyed by Time. In the background a hamlet is pillaged and emigrant Christians setting sail are attacked; a man is hanged from a tree by soldiers. Time holds an open book with on one page the word ons (our) and on the other the alphabet set out backwards, perhaps to signify the degree to which culture had gone awry.
Sold with a certificate by R. de Bertier de Sauvigny, dated 20 February 1998.