Silvio wordt feestelijk onthaald c. 1695 - 1705

Richard van Orley created this print, "Silvio wordt feestelijk onthaald", somewhere between the late 17th and early 18th century. Here we see a crowd welcoming a man named Silvio. The architecture and clothing place us in a classical, perhaps Roman, past. But the artist was working in the Low Countries, and the print would have been consumed by a local audience with its own ideas about social order. In the 17th century, the Low Countries saw considerable political upheaval. What kind of leader does Silvio represent? Is the image of a festive welcome intended to comment on the contemporary political situation? The answers to those questions are not necessarily clear just from looking. As an art historian, my job is to dig deeper. By researching the political and social context in which van Orley worked, we can understand how this image would have been seen at the time, and perhaps even what van Orley intended to communicate.