Bedrieger 1670

This engraving by Harmen de Mayer, made around 1670 in Amsterdam, depicts a man named Don Allonse de Sellosane, labeled a "deceiver." The image is fascinating for what it reveals about the social hierarchy of the time. De Sellosane, dressed in elaborate finery, seems to epitomize the kind of foreign confidence man that preyed on the Dutch Republic's growing wealth. The figure behind him, likely an enslaved African boy, speaks to the grim realities that made Dutch opulence possible. The Dutch Republic was then at the height of its mercantile power, a status made possible through ruthless exploitation in the East Indies and the Americas. De Mayer’s print, produced for a mass audience, would have been shaped by the social and economic conditions of the time. To understand the image better, we might consult archives from the Dutch East India Company or records related to the slave trade. The meaning of art is contingent on its social and institutional context.