Plate 27: Triumphal arch, elevation of the back, surmounted by allegorical figures and decorated with scenes from Roman mythology and history; from Guillielmus Becanus's 'Serenissimi Principis Ferdinandi, Hispaniarum Infantis...'

Johannes Meursius

1636 · Engraving · Drawings and Prints

On January 28, 1635, the city of Ghent celebrated the entry of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Spain, the recently appointed governor of the Southern Netherlands. A group of Flemish artists were commissioned to create paintings for the decoration of two triumphal arches erected in the city's main square for the occasion. Though the majority of these canvases are now lost, the engravings in Guillielmus Becanus's 'Serenissimi Principis Ferdinandi, Hispaniarum Infantis, S.R.E. Cardinalis, Triumphalis Introitus in Flandriae Metropolim Gandavum', Antwerp [1636], illustrate what the series looked like. The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns 34 plates from the set of 42. Triumphal arch decorated with scenes from Roman mythology and history: Mars on horseback and Romulus and Remus with wolf at top; Drusus conquering Germany at center; Marcellus in the temple of Jupiter at middle left; and the triumph of Scipio Africanus at middle right.

Artist

Johannes Meursius

Date

1636

Medium

Engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951