Hieronymus Wierix’s engraving the narrow way and the broad way from 1619: a panofskian reading of an ingraving of the Catholic Reform

Abstract

The article presents and interprets the engraving De smalle en de brede Weg (the narrow way and the broad way) by Hieronymus Wierix, created in the year 1619 in the city of Antwerp, then already under the Spanish rule. The goal is to analyze an expression of the Catholic religious visual culture, which has influenced the Americas and the colonial Brazil and inspired the Brazilian evangelical visual culture, specifically, a woodcut by Charlotte Reihlen in the 19th century. In terms of method, the article applies Ernst Panofsky´s pre-iconographic description, iconographic analysis and iconological interpretation developed especially for the analyses of Renaissance religious art. The expectation is to enrich the understanding of religious visual culture in Latin America and Brazil including its transconfessionality and its rich imaginary background.