Water, plate three from The Four Elements 1622

Jan van de Velde II created this print, "Water, plate three from The Four Elements", using etching techniques. He was working in the Netherlands at a time when the Dutch Republic was a major maritime power. This image presents an ideal opportunity to think about the social conditions that shape artistic production. We see fishermen hauling their catch. What does it mean to represent this kind of labor? The Latin verses at the bottom, lifted from classical literature, suggest a learned audience for this print, people who would appreciate seeing their world ennobled by association with the classical past. How would it have felt to be a fisherman, seeing his daily life represented as part of a grand cosmological scheme? To learn more, we might investigate the archives of Dutch printmaking to explore the popular market for images like this one. In doing so, we acknowledge that the meaning of art is always contingent on social and institutional contexts.