Galerie Lowet de Wotrenge - A rediscovered masterpiece by Gillis Mostaert
10/11/2025
While peasants sleep in the foreground of this jewel-like panel, a pointy-eared devil strides purposefully through their field, scattering weeds among the wheat. At first glance, Gillis Mostaert's
recently rediscovered painting appears to be a straightforward biblical illustration - a parable from Matthew about good and evil. Yet in the religious turmoil of 1560s Antwerp, this small work carried a dangerously progressive message: a call for tolerance in an age of persecution.
The parable's critical verse - "Let both of them grow together until the harvest" - became a rallying cry for moderate theologians arguing against the execution of heretics. By depicting this subject, Mostaert and his contemporaries (including Pieter Bruegel the Elder) were making a subtle but radical statement: only God, not earthly authorities, should separate the righteous from the damned. In a decade that would see the outbreak of the Dutch Revolt and waves of religious violence, such calls for coexistence were as urgent as they were controversial.
Today, as debates over religious freedom, pluralism, and ideological division dominate global discourse, Mostaert's message resonates with uncomfortable immediacy. The painting asks: who decides what is wheat and what is weed? And what damage do we cause when we try to root out what we perceive as evil before its time? .... Read thie press release.
recently rediscovered painting appears to be a straightforward biblical illustration - a parable from Matthew about good and evil. Yet in the religious turmoil of 1560s Antwerp, this small work carried a dangerously progressive message: a call for tolerance in an age of persecution.
The parable's critical verse - "Let both of them grow together until the harvest" - became a rallying cry for moderate theologians arguing against the execution of heretics. By depicting this subject, Mostaert and his contemporaries (including Pieter Bruegel the Elder) were making a subtle but radical statement: only God, not earthly authorities, should separate the righteous from the damned. In a decade that would see the outbreak of the Dutch Revolt and waves of religious violence, such calls for coexistence were as urgent as they were controversial.
Today, as debates over religious freedom, pluralism, and ideological division dominate global discourse, Mostaert's message resonates with uncomfortable immediacy. The painting asks: who decides what is wheat and what is weed? And what damage do we cause when we try to root out what we perceive as evil before its time? .... Read thie press release.
