Allegorie op de Vrede van Munster met tekstblad, 1648 1648

Salomon Savery made this etching, Allegory on the Peace of Munster, in 1648, likely for distribution as a broadside. As an allegory, the print makes a claim about Dutch identity and nationhood. It marks the treaty between the Dutch Republic and Spain that formally concluded the Eighty Years’ War. In the image, the personification of peace rides in a chariot, celebrated by a jubilant crowd. An angel flies overhead with a trumpet, and cherubic figures appear in the clouds. This iconography draws on classical and Christian visual traditions, but it recasts them within a specifically Dutch context. Consider how the image blends the real and the ideal. A contemporary cityscape appears in the background, integrating the allegory into everyday life. The text below the image celebrates the peace in verse. To understand this image further, we might research the history of the Dutch Republic, Dutch printmaking traditions, and the visual culture of peace and diplomacy in 17th-century Europe.