Buste van Milenus 1646 - 1670

Hubert Quellinus made this print of a bust of Milenus in the 17th century. It’s a copy of an ancient Roman sculpture. The figure is depicted in a classical style, with carefully delineated features and a dignified expression. In seventeenth-century Europe, there was renewed interest in classical antiquity, and in its art. Wealthy people collected Roman sculptures and busts, but most people would only have seen them as prints in books. Quellinus came from Antwerp, a city where the Plantin-Moretus publishing house produced many illustrated books. To understand this image better, we might look at the books Plantin-Moretus published and investigate the networks of artists and scholars who produced them. This image reminds us that art and its meanings are always shaped by the social and institutional contexts in which it is made and consumed.