Portret van een wiskundige 1603 - 1706

This undated print, entitled "Portret van een wiskundige", or "Portrait of a Mathematician" in English, was made by an anonymous artist. It’s an etching, a printmaking technique that emerged as an alternative to engraving. In this image, an old man is portrayed at work with mathematical instruments and an open book. The image may reflect the Dutch Republic’s 17th-century investment in scientific knowledge and its applications to shipbuilding, navigation, and military technology. The hooded cloak he wears suggests that he is a scholar. It is interesting that the image is made by an anonymous printmaker, because the production of prints was connected to expanding literacy in this period. To understand the print fully, we might research the different meanings that mathematics could have in the Dutch Republic, as well as the relationship between visual art and the history of science. The meaning of art always depends on the social circumstances in which it’s made.