On page 20 of the Batavorum cum Romanis Bellum, a Germanic victory ritual is depicted. At the beginning of Tacitus’ description of the Batavian uprising against Roman rule, Julius Civilis, the leader of the revolt, let his hair grow (Tac. Hist. 4, 61). According to Germanic custom, he would then have had his hair ceremoniously cut when the vow to liberate the Batavians from Roman rule seemed to have been fulfilled.
The occasion for the temporary triumph is visible in the background of this scene: the pillaged legion fortress of Vetera. The looting and destruction of Vetera marked a turning point in the conflict. In the foreground, Civilis sits enthroned on a pile of enemy weapons, in a manner similar to the Roman depiction of the Ara Pacis. In front of him is his young son, shooting with a bow and arrow at Roman prisoners who, in a variation on the iconography of Saint Sebastian, are tied to a tree. The etching paradigmatically manifests the creative use of established imagery and representational traditions that characterises the entire series: ancient and Christian iconography is used to visually adapt Tacitus’ account of the Batavian uprising for the Spanish-Dutch conflict. The depiction of Civilis in the manner of the victorious Roma and the Roman prisoners, who are presented as Christian martyrs, generate significant semantic shifts. By expressing the temporality and changeability of victory and defeat, they reflect the basic theme of the series: the necessity of peace.
Further Reading
- Di Carlo, Laura / Richter, Daniel. R. F.: Visuelle Aushandlungen des Friedens. Die kreative Aneignung der Antike in Otto van Veens Batavorum cum romanis Bellum, in: Laura Di Carlo / Johannes Lipps / Anna Pawlak / Daniel R.F. Richter (Ed.): Andere Ästhetik meets andere Ästhetik. Visualisierungen von Antiken nördlich der Alpen in der frühneuzeitlichen Druckgraphik.
- Leuschner, Eckhard: Antonio Tempesta. Ein Bahnbrecher des römischen Barock und seine europäische Wirkung, Petersberg 2005 (Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte 26), pp. 464–469.
- Morford, Mark: „Theatrum hodiernae vitae“: Lipsius, Vaenius, and the Rebellion of Civilis, in: Karl Enenkel (Ed.): Recreating Ancient History. Episodes from Greek and Roman Past in the Arts and Literature of Early Modern Period, Leiden 2001, pp. 57–74.
