Zilveren beker 1847 - 1891

This is Johan Conrad Greive’s depiction of a silver cup, rendered in ink on paper in the Netherlands in the late 19th century. This image is of course not the artwork itself, but a reproduction of it, circulated in print. This distinction is important. Greive’s cup embodies a late-19th-century fascination with the past, and the desire to reproduce it. From the medieval figures decorating the cup, to the ornamental skulls around its base, it evokes a specific historical vision. The country was undergoing rapid modernization at the time, and there was a desire to maintain specific values and traditions. By reproducing the cup in print, Greive offered a means for its wider circulation. It raises the question: what is the public role of art? For the historian, this artwork becomes a cultural artifact, the meaning of which is contingent on social and institutional contexts. We can investigate further by looking at the Rijksmuseum’s archive and the artist’s other works.