View of a Convent 

Herman van Swanevelt made this etching, View of a Convent, sometime in the mid-17th century. The print speaks to a growing interest among Northern European artists in the Italian landscape and its classical ruins. We see a religious building depicted amidst secular structures, an arrangement that emphasizes the relationship between the sacred and the everyday. The artist seems to have focused on the formal qualities of the Italian landscape, and its possibilities as subject matter. Here, the etching medium allowed for the easy reproduction and circulation of images. It is through these images that ideas about Italian art and culture were disseminated across Europe. The image could be investigated further using period inventories and travel journals to shed light on the relationship between institutions of art and broader historical trends. Studying the social context can help us to better understand its cultural significance.