The Story
Epileptics Walking to the Left from Pilgrimage of the Epileptics to the Church at Molenbeeck by Hendrick Hondius I. The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Created in 1642 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the power & politics tradition. Hendrick Hondius I worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.
Executed in Engraving; first state of two, measuring Sheet: 8 3/4 x 6 1/2 in. (22.3 x 16.5 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Hendrick Hondius I builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
