A rare allegorical print condemning homosexuality in the Dutch Republic

A rare allegorical print offering a vivid depiction of the condemnation of homosexuality—or "sodomy", referred to at the time as the crimen nefandum (the "unspeakable crime")—a transgression that could easily result in execution in the Dutch Republic.

At the centre of the print stands Lady Justice, holding her characteristic scales and sword. Beneath her, Father Time lifts a veil, revealing a group of eight homosexual men. To the upper left, a personification of heavenly vengeance hovers with a flaming sword and a banderole bearing a reference to Romans 1:27: "In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women". In the lower right corner, sins are personified as women bound in chains. The backdrop depicts the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah engulfed in flames, with fire raining down from the heavens.

The accompanying rhyming verses, penned by the hack-writer Gysbert Tysens (1693–1732), denounce the “horrible sins” and “heaven-provoking wickedness” of sodomy, issuing dire warnings of divine retribution for those who engage in such acts.

The context of this print is significant. Between 1730 and 1731, the Dutch Republic witnessed an unprecedented surge in the persecution of homosexual men, beginning with the infamous Utrecht Sodomy Trials.

Over this period, approximately 250 to 300 men were prosecuted, many facing death sentences. Executions were typically carried out by strangulation, hanging, or, in rare cases, drowning. After death, bodies were either burned or scorched and cast into the sea. No other European nation of the era persecuted homosexuals with such severity.

WorldCat lists only one copy outside of the Netherlands (at the Beinecke Library).