Portret van Johannes Goropius Becanus 1682

Edme de Boulonois created this portrait of Johannes Goropius Becanus in an unknown medium, now held at the Rijksmuseum. The image commemorates a scholar who sought to prove that Dutch was the language spoken in Paradise. This was a time when intellectuals across Europe were beginning to construct national myths and histories. Becanus, a doctor and linguist in the 16th century Netherlands, was a product of the early modern university system, which placed great emphasis on classical learning and rhetoric. Note the way the portrait lends him gravitas: his penetrating gaze, his formal attire. The letters of the inscription lend an antique quality to the piece. The tools of historical research—philology, numismatics, genealogy—were put in the service of building national identity. Today, scholars rely on a variety of sources, from archival documents to printed books, to understand how early modern intellectuals shaped the cultural landscape of Europe. Art helps us understand how national narratives take shape, and how the very institutions of learning were implicated in their construction.