Mozes, muiters en munten. De Wet in Maerten de Vos’ Panhuyspaneel volgens de ‘methode Radermacher’

Abstract

Moses, mutineers, money : the Law in Maerten de Vos' Panhuys panel (1575) according to Johan Radermacher. The panel shows Moses and Aaron with the Ten Commandments, surrounded by Israelites, philosophers and members of the Antwerp merchant families Hooftman and Panhuys (some as portraits histories), backed by relatives and friends. The black-and-white tablets of the Law dominate the center of the otherwise richly colored painting. They are divided in illuminated and shadowed commandments. Moses' right hand and its shadow pont mirror-wise at hte top of each tablet, starting with thou shalt not make images and thou shalt honor thy father and mother. Several Israelites point at a collection of valuables in the foreground, or melancholically look at their bare hands. A frame inscription refers to Exodus 34.35, in whick Moses, after suppressing a heretical mutiny around the image of theGolden Calf, renewed the broken covenant with Israel' s spiritual God. Next, the people volunteered labor and precious goods to build His tabernacle. The painting's (unofficial) title refers to its provenance from the Panhuys legacy. Researchers have concentrated so far on identifying the portrayed persons. They are mostly membeers of a humanist group of intellectuals , merchants and artists around Antwerp book printer Christoffel Plantijn. Some believe the scene expresses support of the spiritualist protestant sect of the Huis der Liefde (House of Love). Research by the author identifies a contemporary event as the incentive for the panel. Invading Spanish mutineers terrorized Antwerp in 1574, in an attempt to extort their back pay from the city magistrate. His article describes religious, political and societal factors determining the burghers' reaction to this rampage. Gillis Hooftman, Peeter Panhuys and their families responded voluntarily to the city council's plea to Ioan cash and valuables to buy off the rebel troops. The author also establishes that Hooftman, Panhuys and their staff-employee, humanist, linguist and art connoisseur Johan Radermacher were covert Calvinists. They supported William of Orange, since 1566 leader of the Dutch Revolt against the catholic king of Spain. Radermacher designed the iconographical programs for a sequence of five paintings De Vos did for Hooftman's dining-room in 1568. The cycle showed scenes from Paul's missionary travels, and covertly criticized papist idolatry and the magistrate's impotence during the 1566 iconoclastic fury, by methodically dovetailing selections from Calvin's Commentary on Acts with contemporary events and persons. Radermacher re-applied this method to the Panhuys panel, by comparing the biblical rebellion around the Golden Calf to the spanish mutiny and the Israelites' voluntary gifts to the burghers' ransom money. A synthesis of humanist and religious thougts on civil government in Calvin's Institution clarifies the connection with the Law : even the ancient philosophers believed that God's divine authority always overrules god-given human powers, whether fathers and mothers or kings. Calvin therefore claims it is lawful to expel the latter if they become ungodly tyrants, preferably by a prince in cooperation with the three estates. The painting expresses this idea in the form of an allegorical apology. The gifts made by Hooftman cum suis express their loyalty to the spiritual Lord of the first commandment and consequently their legal rejection of the unlawful, heretical and idolatrous tyranny of Spanish rule and its rebel soldiers. The Law also justifies their own revolt against the king of Spain, guided by Moses (identifies with William in Calvinistic propaganda) and Aaron as political and religious authorities, while backed by civilian friends representing the third estate. Apart from using a bible story as a moral example for lawful behavior, the iconographical program also includes an artistic metaphor. Radermacher must have informed De Vos about Calvin's comparison of the Old Testament Law tables with a black and white sketch, prefiguring the lively colored masterpiece of the Nwe Testament. Behind closes goors and understood by clse friends and realtives, the Panhuys panel presents the business partners and their personnel as Calvinists righteous critics of catholic idolatry and supporters of the Dutch Revolt. Radermacher's visual line of reasoning corresponds with the verbal apology (currently the Dutch national anthem Wilhelmus) by Revolt leader William of Orange, dating from the same period and attributed to a Calvinist author.