Child reclining 17th century

This is a marble sculpture of a reclining child by Rombout Verhulst. Made in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, the sensuous carving would have been prized by wealthy patrons and placed in their homes. But the child's vulnerability also has wider social and cultural meanings. The Dutch Golden Age was shaped by the expansion of overseas trade, the growth of the middle class, and a new emphasis on domestic life. In such a world, the image of the child took on a special resonance. Seventeenth-century viewers may well have contemplated the sculpture as a symbol of family values. But they might also have considered it a more general reflection on the innocence of youth and the transience of life. To know more about the networks of patronage that supported Dutch sculptors like Verhulst, you might explore local archives or delve into the records of the artists' guilds that were responsible for training sculptors. Art is always contingent on social and institutional contexts.