Furius Camillus ankommer til Rom for at forhandle med gallerne 1565 - 1607

Jan Saenredam made this print of Furius Camillus arriving in Rome to negotiate with the Gauls. It’s a copper engraving and would have been relatively easy to reproduce. The story behind the image comes from Roman history, but Saenredam made it in the Netherlands. How can we bridge that gap? The answer lies in the institutions through which people came to know the ancient world in the 16th and 17th centuries. Humanist scholars and their printing presses played a crucial role. There was a huge appetite for imagery that showed Roman virtues and the new possibilities for political life. The Dutch Republic had just fought for independence from the Spanish Empire. Republican virtues were very much in vogue. Camillus, known for his integrity and wisdom, would have been an obvious figure for the Dutch to admire. To understand images like this, we need to dig into the histories of the book trade, and the social lives of humanist scholars. What can artworks tell us about the politics of their time?