Landschap met steigerende hengst c. 1590 - 1637

Egbert Van Panderen created this small engraving of a rearing horse in the Netherlands sometime between 1610 and 1637. The image of the rearing horse, seen from the rear, brings together ideas about masculine power, animal nature, and the institutions that governed the era. Horses like this were symbols of wealth, military power, and aristocratic status. In the 17th-century Dutch Republic, where newly wealthy merchants were eager to show off their status, images of horses became fashionable. The Latin inscription reveals the artist’s classical education and enhances the artwork's prestige. We can learn more about this artwork through the history of Dutch printmaking, along with period books on horsemanship, social history, and the classics. The meaning of this art is contingent on its historical and institutional context.