Portret van keizer Tiberius 1557 - 1559

Joos Gietleughen made this portrait of Emperor Tiberius as an engraving. The image is embedded in a book that highlights the contrast between earthly power and mortality. This was a popular theme in Northern Europe at the time this was likely made, perhaps in the 16th or 17th century. The Holy Roman Empire had collapsed and a new, more unstable political environment had emerged. The engraving of Tiberius speaks to this sense of instability, as it looks back to the Roman Empire for a model of order, but presents it as something that has passed away. To understand the full meaning of this image, we might research the political situation in the Low Countries during the early modern period, as well as the history of emblem books and the use of classical imagery in them.