Allegorical Images: Art and Eucharist in Erasmus

Erasmus offers a nuanced understanding of sacred art in the Reformation era. He distances himself from the prevailing iconoclastic controversies, and his reflections on votive images draw on Platonic theories of mimesis and Origen’s theology of the Image. Furthermore, sacred art clarifies a core theological issue of the Reform: the Eucharistic cult. During these years, Erasmus actively participates in the ongoing debates on the Eucharist. He formulates his position in dialogues and translations, as evident in the "Colloquia" and in his translation of the "Fragmentum Origenis in Evangelium secundum Matthaeum" (1527). This paper, therefore, explores the intersection between art and Eucharistic theology from Erasmus’s perspective, which brings Platonic–Origenian concepts into a humanist and distinctly modern framework, with a particular emphasis on Free will.