Tafereel met gemaskerde jongen en roede 1629 - 1670

Jacques Dassonville created this etching, “Tafereel met gemaskerde jongen en roede,” sometime in the mid-17th century. The image shows a group of figures gathered outside a humble dwelling. One child is being threatened with a rod by a masked figure. Dassonville was a Flemish artist working in Antwerp, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, a region with a rich tradition of genre painting depicting scenes of everyday life. These images often carried moralizing messages reflecting the social norms of the time. The rod and mask suggest a commentary on the social structure and education of children, common themes in the art of that period. The setting further hints at the rural poverty experienced by much of the population. To fully understand this work, one might research the history of education and social customs in the 17th-century Spanish Netherlands, consulting period documents, literature, and other visual sources to shed light on the cultural context that shaped both the artwork and its audience.