Eighty years ago G.J. Boekenoogen of the Netherlands,
identified 63 known portraits of Menno Simons. Two of them had
been, according to him, incorrectly identified as portraits of
Menno. Later research reveals that his own no. 1 portrait, a
rendition from the 16th century hanging in the Mennonite Church
in Utrecht, is not a picture of Menno either [see Doopsgezinde
Bijdragen 6 (1980) 206]. Nevertheless, Boekenoogen’s list
of the 60 remaining portraits still gives an almost complete
survey of all the portraits from that period till 1917--about
300 years.
A fter 1916, artists and sponsors, especially
in the United States and Canada, were inspired anew by Menno
Simons. A total count of the portraits of Menno from the beginning
to the present would probably number 100.
1. Tom (Oliver Wendel) Shenk. Oil painting,
1975. Commissioned by Myron S. Augsburger for Eastern Mennonite
Seminary in Harrisonburg, VA, where the picture is now hanging.
This portrait is strongly influenced by that of Jacobus
Burghart (No. 12).
More important than the number is the question
about the interest in the subject. Doubtless, most of the portraits
were commissioned. It is probable that Jan
Luyken was asked to make a full-page portrait for the 1681
edition of the Opera Omnia Theologica, containing theological
works of Menno Simons. Another portrait, the
woodcut of Warren Rohrer, was commissioned for the occasion
of the 400th anniversary of Menno’s death in 1961.
Y et, it is also clear that the artists took personal
interest in their projects. Menno’s facial features on the portrait by Jan Luyken show the
influence of the work of Jan van de
Velde, although the central placement of the Bible in Luyken’s
portrait is his own personal inspiration. Warren
Rohrer called the portrait he made a "personal statement--a
symbol of Menno Simon’s contribution rather than a literal
photograph or picture." 4
2.
Anonymous (Reinier Vinkeles?). Engraving circa 1800, influenced
by Van Sichem.
The portraits, we can assume, have symbolic meaning.
But symbolic of what? To be able to answer this question, we
have to go back to the personal vision of the author or to the
impressions of the viewer. We can say that Luyken
has pictured Menno as a powerful preacher whose heart was influenced
by the biblical message. Jacobus
Burghart, whose 1683 engraving has been copied many times,
shows Menno as a pietist. Artists render a depiction of the spiritual
climate of their time. It is therefore no wonder that Arend
Hendriks emphasized the psychological side of Menno. In 1961
Warren Rohrer utilized an expressionistic interpretation. This portrait, more than any other
one, is found in contemporary journals.
M ore important than the quantity of portraits,
is the artistic quality. It is somewhat ironic to speak about
this in connection with the portraits of a leader of persecuted
disciples of Christ who were called "Anabaptists."
The portraits, however, are from a later period when Menno’s
followers had already adjusted themselves to the world. They
no longer disapproved of the prevailing culture or of wealth.
Boekenoogen pointed out that most of the portraits were created
by experienced artists. Christoffel
van Sichem, who made the oldest known portrait, about 1610,
was a well-known and capable portraitist. He was Roman Catholic,
which is probably why he made a ridiculous presentation of Menno.
Jan van de Velde, Jan
Luyken and Romeyn de Hooghe
all mastered the art of etching on a copper plate. Jacobus
Burghart is rather unknown, but his portrait is the best
from an artistic viewpoint. The decorations along the borders
make Menno appear to be a nobleman or German priest. In general,
the portraits are highly subjective interpretations of Menno.
Some are even romantic. The portrait
by Arend Hendriks is on the one hand very cleverly made,
but on the other hand may be a too-worldly interpretation. It
reveals clearly the emptiness of certain aspects of the 19th
century. It was the beginning of a new understanding of Menno.
3.
Rev. G.J.W. den Herder. Linoleum cut, circa 1934. This portrait
was sold to raise money to help the members of the Bruderhof
to escape Nazi Germany through the Netherlands to England. Based
on the engraving of Van Sichem.
On the contrary, the
1975 portrait by Tom Shenk represents a return to the old
Burghart tradition. We are still
waiting for a portrait where Menno is presented above all as
a dynamic leader of the Mennonite Brotherhood, who did not want
to be a ruler, but a servant. All of the portraits numbered 1-20
were identified by Boekenoogen, except for numbers 3 and 4. These
two, in addition to numbers 21-24, were created after Boekenoogen’s
article was published in 1916. The most recent interpretation
reviewed in this article is Tom Shenk’s 1975 oil painting.
[End of text. More
photos follow]
4.
Jan van de Velde. Engraving, c. 1630. Until now known as the
second oldest portrait.
5. Meinte Walta. Poster, 1961. Made
for a 1961 exhibition in Witmarsum commemorating the 400th anniversary
of Menno’s death. Based on the engraving of Van
Sichem.
6.
Jan Luyken. Etching 1681. This portrait appears in the collected
works of Menno Simons, Opera Omnia Theologica (Amsterdam, 1681).
Luyken is further known through his 104 etches in the second
printing of the Martyrs’ Mirror (Amsterdam, 1685).
7.
Warren Rohrer. Woodcut, 1961. Commissioned by Eastern Mennonite
College, Harrisonburg, VA. The work of Rohrer is to be found
in important American museums, including the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He graduated
from EMC, and in 1984 was chosen as "alumnus of the year."
8. Clement Nachtegaal. Engraving,
c. 1730. Also influenced by Burghart.
Instead of the usual representation, signed with K.T., we have
here a portrait which is signed with M.D.
9.
Christoffel van Sichem. Engraving circa 1608. This is considered
to be the oldest portrait of Menno Simons, who died in 1561.
Van Sichem was Roman Catholic; some people see in the brim of
the hat the ears of a donkey, meant to ridicule Menno and his
followers. This engraving appeared separately on a small foliopage
and later in Het Toneel der Hooft-Ketteren (Middleburg, 1677).
10.
Jan van de Velde. Engraving before 1636. This a completely new
portrait, based on the earlier representation.
11.
Jan van de Velde. Engraving. Published by Corn. Koning in Haarlem.
This is probably a new portrait, because Menno is wearing a skull-cap
that shows his ears and a little bit of a hair lock on his forehead.
His date of death is added on the bottom right-hand side.
12.
Jacobus Burghart. Engraving, 1683. This portrait appeared two
years after the etching of Jan Luyken.
It has served as an example for several later portraits of Menno.
It is noteworthy enough to be the only portrait signed by Burghart.
It was later reproduced by the Mennonite Church in Hamburg, where
the original was probably created. Even though a similarity exists
between the portraits of Luyken and Burghart, the differences,
above all when comparing the beards, show that Burghart probably
was not familiar with the earlier portraits.
13.
Anonymous. This engraving appeared in Alte und Neue Schwarm-Geister-Bruth
(Frankfurt a.M., 1702).
14.
Josef Keller. Engraving, c. 1830. This portrait shows features
of Van de Velde’s work and
of No. 13.
15.
Jan Casper Philips. Engraving, 1743. Based on the portrait of
Jan van de Velde.
16. L.E.F. Garreau. Engraving,
1788. Influenced by Burghart.
17.
Jacobus Buys, designer; Reinier Vinkeles, engraver, 1792. Influenced
by the portrait by Jan Luyken.
18.
Reinier Vinkeles. Engraving, circa 1800. Also influenced by Burghart.
19.
C. Hotze. Litho, c. 1856. Influenced by Burghart.
20.
Romeyn de Hooghe. Etching, 1701. Found in the Dutch translation
of the German, Gottfried Arnold’s, Historie der Kerken en
Ketteren (Amsterdam, 1701). This portrait is a free imitation
of the portrait by Josef Keller (No.
14).
21.
Johannes Philippus Lange. Engraving, 1837. Influenced by Burghart. Published in A.M. Cramer,
The Life and the Accomplishments of Menno Simons (Amsterdam,
1837).
22.
Alexander Harding. Oil painting, 1935. Harder, born in Russia
in 1901, was a German Mennonite. In his portrait are recurring
artistic themes of Jan Luyken (No.
6). and Jacobus Burghart (12).
The picture is hanging in the Mennonite Historical Library and
Archives, North Newton, Kansas.
23.
Dirk Sluyter according to H. Thepass. Engraving, c. 1828. This
picture of the interior of the so-called Menno Simons’ little
church in Witmarsum, shows a reproduction of a picture by Willem
Bartel van der Kooi that is now hanging in the new church building
of the Doopsgezinde (Mennonite) Congregation in Witmarsum. The
Menno Simons little church stood on the place where the Menno
Simons monument is now standing. According to tradition, Menno
met his followers on the farm that was located at this place,.
At the bottom left of the engraving is the exterior of the Menno
Simons’ littler church, and at the bottom right is a portrait
of Menno. The four-line stanza that was originally seen on a
stone in the front wall of the Menno Simons little church is
now standing at the entrance to the Menno Simons monument.
24.
Arend Hendriks. Engraving, 1948. Hendriks was commissioned to
give a psychological interpretation in which other portraits
were to be worked in. This portrait has been imitated numerous
times in North America.
This article was originally
published in Doopsgezinde Bijdragen, LIII (1916) 3-106.
It was translated by Jo and Herman Tann (1996) by permission
of the author, and edited by Leonard Gross and the editor, John
E. Sharp. FOR PERMISSION TO USE PHOTOS CONTACT JOHN E. SHARP.
