Diana at the bath c. 1631

Rembrandt van Rijn created this print, Diana at the bath, using etching. Made in the Netherlands, it is typical of the time, and it can be seen to reflect the tastes of a wealthy merchant society interested in classical stories. However, instead of an idealized mythological scene, Rembrandt presents a woman who looks very much like an ordinary inhabitant of Amsterdam. Rembrandt’s subject is in line with the Dutch Republic’s Calvinist aversion to the ostentation of courtly life or the Catholic Church. Diana at the bath represents a more egalitarian ethos that was emerging in the Netherlands at this time, in the wake of its revolt against the Spanish Empire. It is a moment in which civic institutions, rather than the church or the court, played a more prominent role in defining the public sphere. As historians, our work is to understand how these social structures come into being, and the kind of historical research we conduct relies on a broad range of sources, from official documents to popular literature, to the artworks on display.