Jagen met luipaarden te Surat, 1620

Adriaen Matham made this etching, 'Hunting with Leopards in Surat,' around 1620. It offers a glimpse into the cross-cultural encounters of the early 17th century. Matham never travelled to India; instead, he likely based this image on travel accounts and imagery brought back by Dutch East India Company merchants. We see this in the way Matham mixed observation with established visual codes. He depicts an Indian landscape, complete with palm trees and native animals. The inclusion of the hunting leopards on a cart suggests both a fascination with and a Western interpretation of local customs. This image reflects the Dutch Republic’s burgeoning global presence and its interest in documenting, and perhaps also exoticizing, foreign lands. By studying prints like this alongside archival documents, we can better understand the complex interplay between art, commerce, and cultural exchange in the early modern world.