Monnik als prins Carnaval

Jacob Gole created this print, "Monk as Prince Carnival" in the Netherlands, sometime between 1660 and 1737. It is made with etching and depicts a man dressed as a bishop drinking from a bottle. This image creates meaning through visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations. Carnival was a festival that inverted social hierarchies and allowed people to mock authority figures and the church, before the fasting of Lent. Carnival, the church and social hierarchy are all institutions that shaped social life in the Netherlands at this time. This print, made during the Dutch Golden Age, critiques the institutions of the church and perhaps even the state through the lens of something more accessible to the common person. The historian can interpret art by using research resources to help clarify the social and institutional contexts within which they were made. The meaning of art is contingent on these contexts.