Thiamis en Theagenes kondigen hun aanwezigheid aan Arsace aan 1623

Michel Lasne made this print, "Thiamis en Theagenes kondigen hun aanwezigheid aan Arsace aan", sometime in the first half of the 17th century. In it, we see a scene of negotiation and anticipation play out before a fortified city. Lasne was a master of the engraving, a medium that came into its own in the 17th century, and one that relied heavily on dissemination through printmaking institutions. Engravings like this one helped spread humanist ideas throughout Europe. Educated audiences at the time would have been able to identify the characters and narrative, understanding its visual and cultural codes, its aesthetic and political functions. The print’s meaning is also shaped by the rise of absolutist power in France, and the attendant visual rhetoric that supported this. As art historians, our role is to dig deeper. What was the status of this story at the time? What kind of rhetorical work was this image doing? What was the relationship between its classical subject matter and contemporary political events? These are the questions that help us better understand the historical impact of works like this.