Habitus et cultus Matronarum Nobilu et Rusticarum (Clothing and Manners of Noblewomen and Countrywomen) 1619 - 1623

Adriaen Matham created this print, "Clothing and Manners of Noblewomen and Countrywomen," in the Netherlands, sometime in the first half of the 17th century. Here, Matham uses the conventions of genre painting to classify social status and the values associated with it. This image is of a bare-footed peasant girl set against a rural backdrop. At first glance, this image can be viewed as an objective record of Dutch rural life. But we should consider this image in the context of the print market in the Dutch Golden Age, and the social function that prints played in articulating social identity. The Dutch Republic was one of the first societies to develop a widespread print culture. Prints were collected into albums and displayed on walls, demonstrating the owner's taste and education. The print medium helped to create norms and ideas about social class. We can imagine how prints like this helped to shape and reinforce ideas about social roles. By studying sources such as costume books, manuals of etiquette, and other images of the period, we can develop a richer understanding of the social context of this image.