Hyacint en een tulp 1686

Isaac Vincentsz. van der Vinne made this print of a hyacinth and a tulip sometime around 1686. In the Dutch Golden Age, the country experienced an economic boom that resulted in increased trade, wealth, and leisure time. The Dutch became avid horticulturalists. Gardens were status symbols, and flowers were subjects for still-life paintings and prints. Tulips in particular became wildly popular. New varieties were traded at high prices and fortunes were made and lost in the tulip market. What started as a display of wealth soon became a speculative frenzy, before the market collapsed in 1637. The artist’s choice of these specific flowers tells us something about the social conditions that shaped artistic production. It reminds us to look into the economic structures that influenced not only the content of the image but the demand for it. To understand this image better, one might research the history of the Dutch horticultural market, the economy of the period, and the artist’s clientele.