Gezicht op Kasteel Ter Hooge c. 1662

Pieter Hendricksz. Schut produced this print of Gezicht op Kasteel Ter Hooge in the Netherlands sometime in the mid-seventeenth century. It offers a glimpse into the social and spatial hierarchies of the Dutch Golden Age. The print depicts a grand castle surrounded by meticulously manicured gardens, reflecting the wealth and power of its inhabitants. The castle itself, with its imposing architecture, symbolizes authority and status. In the foreground, figures on horseback and others on foot populate the scene, their attire and bearing indicative of their social standing. Such markers of status would have been instantly recognizable to contemporaries of the artist. This image creates meaning through its visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations. The Dutch Golden Age was a period of economic prosperity and cultural flourishing, but also of stark social inequalities. Prints such as these offer valuable insights into the social structures and power dynamics of the time, and can be supplemented by other archival sources to better understand the social world of the seventeenth-century Netherlands.