The Image of the Refugee

Forced Migrations and Visual Culture in the Early Modern Low Countries

Abstract

This essay examines how growing numbers of displaced men and women in the early modern Low Countries were incorporated into contemporary visual culture. It argues that evolving representations of the refugee were built on biblical and classical tropes, and shaped by the interests of stakeholders, notably religious minorities. Mapping this visual landscape, it proposes a typology of five, partly overlapping refugee types. Each drew on pictorial models and confessional scripts aligned with the sensibilities of target audiences. The iconographic development of the early modern refugee would have dramatic consequences for displaced groups who did not fit into such categories.