Portret van Pierre de Ronsard 1597 - 1599

Around the 17th century, Robert Boissard created this engraving, "Portret van Pierre de Ronsard." Boissard captures the image of Pierre de Ronsard, a prominent French poet during a time of significant religious and political upheaval in France. Ronsard, adorned with a laurel wreath, symbolizes the height of poetic achievement. The classical framing of the portrait—with its columns and Latin inscription— situates Ronsard within a lineage of learned excellence, echoing the Renaissance's revival of classical antiquity. Yet, this idealized portrayal exists in stark contrast to the tumultuous realities of Ronsard's France, marked by religious wars and social unrest. As a leading figure of the "La Pléiade," Ronsard sought to elevate the French language to the level of classical Latin and Greek, and in the process, imagined a pure and unified France, at the cost of erasing regional and religious difference. What does it mean to craft beauty amidst conflict, and to idealize identity in times of division?