Deel van de optocht, nr. 18 1559 - 1619

Joannes van Doetechum made this print, 'Part of the Procession, No. 18', using engraving, sometime around the late 16th century. The scene depicts a formal procession, a public display laden with social meaning. Processions like this in the Netherlands were highly structured affairs, reinforcing the hierarchies of the time. Note the figures on horseback, adorned with elaborate plumes and the central figure carrying a banner. These are visual markers of status. The inscriptions above each group further identify the participants, solidifying their place within the social order. In 16th-century Netherlands, such displays were carefully orchestrated to communicate power and legitimacy. As a historian, to fully understand this print, I would delve into archival records of the period: accounts of similar processions, genealogical information about the individuals named, and sumptuary laws dictating who could wear what. Each element, from the horses' trappings to the cut of a nobleman's clothes, speaks volumes about the social fabric of the time.