The Triumphal Entry of Leopold William in Ghent.

Engraving on 4 large sheets, 97 x 139 cm (each sheet 48 x 68 cm), laid paper, signed in the plate (laid down on paper, remargined, 2 sm. diagonal cuts at upper corner of the lower left sheet, overall in very good condition).

Under rich orn. gilt frame (some min. damages).

In 1647 Archduke Leopold William of Austria, son of Emperor Ferdinand II, was appointed by his nephew, Philip IV of Spain, to the governorship of the Southern Netherlands. After the Treaty of Westphalia and Münster, ending both the horrors of the Thirty Years War and the Eighty Years War, Leopold Willem eventually arrived in the Spanish Netherlands in 1653. This was celebrated with time-honoured state entries in several major cities. These prints express the aspirations for a renewed period of prosperity after a long period of economic decline. Erasmus Quellinus was also responsible for providing the decorations for Leopold Willem's Antwerp entry and was thus likely to commemorate the same event in Ghent with the publication of a grand-scale print, pulled from four plates. In the contract it was stipulated that the painter was to seek the best engraver to cut the plates after his design, thus it was the renowned engraver Schelte Bolswert who received the prestigious commission thanks to his high artistic and technical quality, proven in his earlier engravings after Rubens. This print was considered a real luxury product. Very good impression of the only state.
Ref. Hollstein II:291. - A. Diels, "The Siren Song of the graphic arts: the involvement of 17th-century Antwerp history painter with printmaking", In: Monte Articum 3 (2010), pp. 127-138, esp. pp. 131-32.