Romeinse keizer op een troon 1667

Christiaan Hagen produced this print of a Roman emperor on a throne in Amsterdam, in 1667. The image raises interesting questions about the status of classical antiquity as a model for the 17th century. The print shows an emperor, likely Roman, enthroned above two figures, one reading from a book and the other holding one. Behind the emperor we can see philosophers gathered in discussion. The text on the steps says "PH[ilosophi] EBRI[a] RABVL[a]". The setting is thus a kind of symbolic, ideal academy, presided over by the image of imperial power. The print was made in the Netherlands, a republic, at a time when the Dutch were consolidating their power as a global trading nation and a centre of artistic and intellectual achievement. It may be that the artist is using the figure of the emperor to imply that the Dutch republic is a new kind of empire, one built on trade and knowledge rather than conquest. To fully understand this image, a historian would want to research the publishing house responsible for its production and distribution, as well as other images that Hagen made.