Portret van Johannes Cocceius 1698 - 1776

This is Johannes de Groot’s portrait of Johannes Cocceius, rendered with etching. Notice the oval frame; it’s more than mere decoration. From antiquity to the Renaissance, the oval symbolized the cosmos, eternity, and the womb. Here, it suggests Cocceius’s ideas are timeless, universal. The severe gaze, the voluminous hair, and the dark robe all convey solemnity. The sitter's appearance echoes depictions of ancient philosophers and religious figures, embedding Cocceius in a lineage of intellectual authority. Consider the heavy, dark clothing. This is not simply attire, but a symbolic weight of knowledge and piety. Such robes appear in countless portraits, linking figures across centuries through this shared visual language of wisdom. This echoes the collective memory and unconscious reverence for intellectual and religious figures deeply embedded in our psyche. Symbols, however, evolve. Today, the robe might signify something different: power, formality, or even oppression. The meaning is not fixed, but cyclical, changing with time and context, a constant dance between past and present.