Reproductie van vier prenten van een portret van een Romeinse keizer omringd door grotesken door Hans Vredeman de Vries, afgebeeld Claudius, Caligula, Galba en Augustus before 1880

This reproduction of four prints showing Roman emperors surrounded by grotesque ornamentation was made in the Netherlands, sometime in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, after designs by Hans Vredeman de Vries. The visual language on display here draws on two distinct historical moments. The first is ancient Rome, evoked by the presence of the emperors themselves. The second is the rediscovery of classical antiquity during the Renaissance, which led to a revival of classically-inspired ornamentation across Europe. The so-called ‘grotesque’ style – light, fanciful arrangements of plant-like forms and fantastical creatures – was particularly popular, and was often used to frame portraits of important individuals. The revival of classical forms in Northern Europe was largely driven by wealthy patrons and humanist scholars, who saw ancient Rome as a kind of Golden Age. This image reminds us that art does not exist in a vacuum. The images, styles, and forms that artists use are always rooted in a specific social, economic, and political context. To understand them better, we need to look at the institutions that supported and shaped their production.