Portret van Godfried III met de Bult 1650

Cornelis Visscher made this print of Godfrey the Third, Duke of Lower Lorraine, in the Netherlands sometime in the mid-seventeenth century. But we need to remember that this is not a straightforward record of his likeness. The Duke lived six hundred years earlier, so this portrait revives the image of a medieval ruler in a way that is meaningful for Visscher’s time. Godfrey is shown in armour, but it's the inscription that gives us more insight into the image’s meaning. It describes Godfrey’s military conflict with William, Bishop of Utrecht and claims that the republic was oppressed until Godfrey’s death. The print seems to promote the idea of strong leadership as it defends a populace from the church, even including a heraldic crest and Latin verse to affirm the Duke’s qualities as a ruler. By studying the history of Dutch political thought in the 1600s, we can better understand what this image meant to its early viewers.