Medaillon met krijgsgodin Bellona 1670

This is Gerard de Lairesse's "Medaillon met krijgsgodin Bellona," an etching which now resides in the Rijksmuseum. De Lairesse, a Dutch Golden Age painter, was working in a society deeply shaped by its relationship to war and its complex construction of gender roles. Here, Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, is encircled by an ornate medallion. What does it mean to depict a woman, however powerful, within such decorative constraints? Consider how Bellona's strength is framed—literally—by societal expectations of beauty and ornamentation. The artist seems to be asking: Can a woman truly embody the attributes of war without being confined by the expectations of her gender? This artwork compels us to consider the nuanced ways in which power and identity intersect, challenging the traditional narratives of both war and femininity in the 17th century.