Vier paarden 1510 - 1550

Sebald Beham made this engraving of Four Horses in the mid-16th century. The status of the horse in early modern Europe was tied to military and aristocratic power, and these associations are evident in the print. The image creates meaning through visual codes that would have been instantly familiar to its viewers. The attention to musculature and the highly stylized poses draw on classical ideals of beauty while also pointing to the importance of horses to courtly culture. Beham was a German artist working at a time when the Holy Roman Empire was undergoing significant social and religious upheaval. Beham's style reveals the influence of the Italian Renaissance as it filtered north. To understand Beham's images more fully, art historians consult a wide range of sources, from emblem books and treatises on horsemanship to social histories of the period. The meaning of art is never fixed but is always contingent on its social and institutional context.