Tegeltableau PRINS HENDRICK VAN NASSAV 1619

This tile tableau depicts Prince Hendrick van Nassau in blue and white earthenware. It was made in the Netherlands in 1662 by an anonymous artist. The portrait presents the Prince as a figure of power. He is standing tall and holding a sword. He is also in full armor. The artist most likely worked to commission, and the tableau would have been displayed in a prominent position in the household. Here we might consider how the politics of imagery work in seventeenth-century Netherlands. Were all people allowed to produce images of this kind? Were there protocols determining how members of the ruling family could be represented? What were the professional guilds regulating artistic production at this time? These are the kinds of questions that an art historian would consider to understand more about the social conditions that shaped this object. We might consult archives, guild records, and books on the history of the Dutch Republic.