Portret van Marcus Zuerius Boxhorn

This portrait of Marcus Zuerius Boxhorn was made by Jonas Suyderhoef, an engraver working in the Dutch Republic, around the mid-17th century. The print captures Boxhorn in an oval frame, identified as a professor at Leiden University, age 28. Engraving boomed in the Netherlands at this time, alongside a growing market for imagery. Prints like these served various purposes. They functioned as independent artworks for collectors, but also circulated likenesses of important public figures. This image tells us about the place of the university in Dutch society. Leiden was a famed center of humanist scholarship. Boxhorn taught rhetoric and history. The Latin phrases framing the portrait emphasize his learning. But this wasn’t just an intellectual pursuit. The Dutch Republic was a commercial power. Its universities trained administrators and merchants. To understand this image further, we could delve into the university’s archives. Or trace the print’s distribution. In doing so, we get a richer sense of the portrait’s cultural work.