Formele tuin met ruiters 1707

Sieuwert van der Meulen created this print, "Formele tuin met ruiters", sometime between 1713 and 1730. Van der Meulen lived and worked during the Dutch Golden Age, a period of immense economic and cultural growth for the Netherlands. This detailed print depicts a formal garden, with riders on horseback and classical architectural elements like ruins and statues. During the Golden Age, the Dutch Republic was a major center of trade and colonialism. The elite showed off their wealth through elaborate displays of art, architecture, and meticulously designed gardens. The riders and the well-to-do visitors speak to ideas of social status, leisure, and the performance of power, reflective of the racial and economic inequalities inherent in the colonial project. The architecture references antiquity, imbuing the Dutch Republic with an imagined legacy of empire and intellectualism. The artist subtly reminds us of the visual pleasures and political underpinnings that so often intertwine.