Dienstbaarheid 1605

Raffaello Schiaminossi created this print, titled 'Dienstbaarheid,' or servitude, sometime between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Schiaminossi was working in Italy at a time when printed images were circulating widely. They were a valuable tool in the dissemination of ideas, both religious and secular. Here, the artist offers us a female personification of servitude. She carries a yoke, a symbol of burden and oppression. The setting is a barren landscape, reinforcing the idea of hardship. As a cultural historian, I'm interested in how images like this reflect the social hierarchies of the time. Who is being served, and who is doing the serving? Is Schiaminossi commenting on the social order? To understand this print fully, we might research the economic and social conditions of 17th-century Italy, and investigate the relationship between artistic production and patronage in Schiaminossi's time. The meaning of art is always contingent on its context.