Palace of Galienus and the Temple of Tudela at Bordeaux c. 1600 - 1604

Gerard ter Borch the Elder made this pen and brown ink drawing of the Palace of Galienus and the Temple of Tutela at Bordeaux. It is an evocation of antiquity for a 17th-century audience. The architecture and the dress of the figures signal the distant past, but the image also speaks to the rise of antiquarianism as a scholarly pursuit in the Netherlands during this period. We can see this interest in historical accuracy as self-consciously progressive. Borch’s drawing reflects a broader cultural project of imagining and understanding past societies through their material remains. He would likely have been influenced by architectural treatises and prints which circulated widely at the time. The social conditions that shaped artistic production in the 17th century were tied to the growth of a market for art among a wealthy merchant class. Artists were increasingly independent of aristocratic patronage and so were free to represent a broader range of subjects and styles. Careful examination of surviving documents can reveal the nature of artistic training, the circulation of images, and the social networks that sustained artistic careers.