The Death of Calvin

What it is

This is a colour lithograph by Jean-Julien Jacott, dated 1850 in the catalogue, titled La Mort de Calvin (The Death of Calvin). It shows an elderly bearded man in a white nightshirt lying in bed, gesturing with one hand, while about eight men in period dress with ruffs and fur-trimmed robes gather around him. The Wellcome Collection in London holds it. The museum notes describe a library, an illuminated gospel book and a mace or baton of office leaning against a chair.

Why it matters

The print is an imagined scene made long after Calvin died in 1564. The artist was not present, so it shows how Calvin was remembered in the nineteenth century rather than what happened. It belongs to a wider tradition of images that present reformers as dignified and surrounded by followers at the end of their lives.

Look closer

• Who are the men around the bed, and what roles do their clothes and gestures suggest?
• Which objects were chosen to stand for Calvin, such as the book and the hourglass, and what do they say about him?
• What might an eyewitness have seen that this imagined scene leaves out?